2020 has been a long year. Now, we’re finally at its final chapter, and what better way to bring this challenging book to a close than to look back on the lessons we’ve learned and look forward to the next? In this episode, Moneeka Sawyer invites John Lee Dumas, the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, to help us bring in the new year by talking about setting and achieving the goals that matter most to us. Taking with him wisdom from successful entrepreneurs, he shares The 100-Day Goal Journal that can guide you to your success as well as what is called the SMART goal. Join Moneeka and John as they break down its components and show you how you can greet the new year living your best self and being on fire.

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How To Accomplish What Matters Most To You With John Lee Dumas

Real Estate Investing For Women

I have a special episode for you. I am bringing on John Lee Dumas. He is the host of Entrepreneurs On Fire, an award-winning podcast where he interviews inspiring entrepreneurs who are truly on fire with over 2,500 episodes, one million-plus listeners a month, and seven figures of annual income. JLD is just getting started. I’ve asked John to help us bring in the new year by teaching what he lives better than most, setting and achieving the goals that matter most to us. I am excited to welcome to the show the only man on fire, John Lee Dumas. How are you?

Moneeka, it is great to be here. I love your energy and your vibe. It’s always awesome hanging out with you.

John, you put together a journal called The 100-Day Goal Journal: Accomplish What Matters to You. I know that you talk to entrepreneurs all over the place. Talk to me about why goals are important. Why did you put together this particular journal?

I’ve interviewed over 2,700 successful entrepreneurs. To be honest with you, I can only pull out a couple of themes that almost every single one of those 2,700 have in common. One of those few themes that are across the board is successful entrepreneurs know how to set goals, and then they know how to accomplish those goals that they’ve set. Frankly, unsuccessful people don’t know how to do either and they’re not doing either, and they’re suffering as a result. I wanted to create a strategy guide for people to step-by-step understand what it means to accomplish a goal that matters to them. That’s why The 100-Day Goal Journal exists, and I’m proud of that work.

I can’t wait to use it. Talk to me a little bit about what is a meaningful goal from your perspective?

“Successful entrepreneurs know how to set goals and how to accomplish those goals.” ~ JLD

First off, you could step back and say, “Let me set a SMART goal.” A SMART goal is five components, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It’s critical. Those five things need to be part of your goal every single time, and a lot of people don’t focus on the meaningful part of the goal. A lot of people accomplish a goal to be like, “I accomplished the goal, but why is my life still the same? It doesn’t feel like it’s moved forward.” It’s because you didn’t set a meaningful goal. You just set a goal and you accomplished it.

It has to be meaningful and it has to be something that matters to you. That’s why you’ve got to be specific with it. It’s got to be measurable. You got to measure what that goal is that you’ve accomplished. It’s going to be attainable. It can’t be unrealistic. Otherwise, you’ll quit. It’s got to be relevant. That’s that meaningful part. It’s got to matter to your life, then it’s got to be time-bound. You have to set a timeframe, which is why I use 100 days. Those are the critical components that a lot of people miss when they set goals, and it has to be a part of it.

Talk to me a little bit about the 100 days. To me, that seems like such an arbitrary number. Could you tell me a little bit about why you chose that?

I don’t want to say that it’s not arbitrary because it’s got some arbitrariness in there for sure. There’s no magical formula that 100 days is the perfect number. For me, I wanted to sit down and say, “What is a timeframe that feels realistic?” People are like, “I’m going to do this in 2021.” For me, a year is way too long of a timeframe. Yes, a year goes by like that but when you’re in the beginning part of it, it feels like you have all the time in the world to accomplish that goal because you have a full year. At the same time, anything like 25, 35, 55 goes by in a blink of the eye. I want people to not look at too short of a timeframe and say, “I’m not willing to create a stretch goal that’s going to push me.”

I want people to, number one, feel like they have a good amount of time, but not too much time that they procrastinate. To me, the 100 days slotted in there nicely where it’s enough time to accomplish something big, but not too much time where you feel like you can just slack off the beginning. You get 100 days and when you wake up the next day, you’re already down to double digits. You’re at 99 days. The clock is ticking. It’s time to get your butt moving and make things happen. It’s arbitrary, but it’s something that has worked for me, so that’s why I went with it.

Accomplish What Matters Most: A SMART goal is five components: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

If someone doesn’t succeed in achieving their goal in 100 days, what do you recommend?

I’m a big believer that if you get to the 100 days and you haven’t accomplished your goal, it’s time to assess. In fact, in this journal, you have reassessments where you’re looking back at day 25, 50, and 75 to identify your progress and hold you accountable that you are moving forward at the pace you should be. Frankly, you’ll know well before day 100 if you’re not going to accomplish your goal because there are all these specific check-in points on the way. There’s nothing wrong at day 75 to adjust your goal down, or maybe jack it up if you’re way ahead of the game.

Nothing’s wrong with that because this is not a perfect science. This isn’t like this recipe where if you get one ingredient wrong, the whole thing’s terrible. That’s not the case. This is a fluid process. That’s the best word. Challenge yourself. If you’ve got to tweak things down a little bit by day 50 or 75, you’ll know it and do so. If you’re going to jack things up because you’re way ahead of schedule, do that too so that by day 100, you’ll know 100% where you’re going to be by that point and you’re going to feel good about it.

How do you know if you’re succeeding?

If your goal is being accomplished and you’re seeing marked progress. That’s part of the process where you are grading and judging yourself every step along the way. You’re being hard on yourself. You need to be your own worst critic. This book, journal, guide, strategy, and system ensures that you are your most harsh critic because you need to be. Nobody else cares about you. I hate to say it, but they don’t care about you because they’ve got their own stuff they care about. It’s not that they don’t like, don’t love you, and not rooting for you. Frankly, they don’t care that much about your goal because they got their own crap that they’re worried about. Their life is crazy, mayhem, and tough enough without thinking about you every 10 seconds or 10 days or 100 days. Realize that you are your own best cheerleader. At the same time, you’ve got to be your own worst critic too.

“You are succeeding if your goal is being accomplished and you’re seeing marked progress.” ~ JLD

Nobody cares about you as much as you care about you. That’s the thing. We’ve got all our own stuff. Even an accountability coach or partner is not going to care about your achievements as much as they’re going to care about their own because they’re not in your head or in your life. That’s what I love so much about this journal. It makes you your own accountability partner. Could you talk a little bit more about accountability, specifically on why is that so important?

Even though nobody’s going to care about us like ourselves, we need that kick in the butt by people who care about us. When you are in an accountability group and you have people who you’re counting on and they’re counting on you, then there comes this bond together where you are rooting for each other, checking in with each other, and don’t want to let each other down. It’s critical. I have multiple masterminds for different parts of my life.

I’ve got a health mastermind and a business mastermind because I want to make sure that I’m excelling in both areas of my life. To do that, I need accountability in both areas of my life. That’s an example of why an accountability group is important because it’s going to ensure that you don’t just slither away and go watch Netflix all day. You know you’ve got a meeting with your partners, accountability group, or mastermind, and they’re going to want to know what you’ve done.

Would you call this journal your own personal accountability partner?

Absolutely. That’s why I wanted and liked the idea of a physical journal because you can’t hide from that. You can’t put the folder on your desktop and hide it somewhere. It’s on your bed stand, on top of your desk, and on your briefcase. It’s there taunting you, “I dare you not to use me today because the proof will be in the pudding.”

“Realize that you are your own best cheerleader. At the same time, you’ve got to be your own worst critic too.” ~ JLD

I heard you on another podcast talk about focusing on your strengths when setting your goals, which many people do like, “I’m going to improve this about myself,” but they’re trying to improve the thing that they suck at. To be blissful, which is what I’m all about, you want to focus on what’s awesome about you and make it awesome. Do you agree with me on that?

We don’t need another C student in this world. That’s the problem. We will go down this rabbit hole but a big problem with traditional education is they’re like, “You got an A in this subject. Good. We don’t need to focus on that anymore. You got a D and a C here. Let’s spend all of our time here.” It’s the opposite. What are you naturally great at? What are you good at right now? How do you become even better at that? Why do you want to go from a D to a C? You’re going from crappy to still crappy. This world doesn’t need more crappiness.

What this world needs is you living in your bliss, living in your best self, and you being on fire, and that’s going to happen when you’re doing what you love and what you’re great at. That’s how you’re going to blossom and that’s what the world needs. That’s why I’m a big believer in saying, “What am I great at? Let me spend all my time doing that.” The things you’re not good at, hire people on your team to do those things or don’t do them at all because it’s not worth doing average. It’s not going to move the needle for you. I only do a handful of things in my business. I only do the things that A) I’m good at and that B) I enjoy doing. That’s it. The other things that happen in my business are because I’ve hired the right people to do those things.

If you’re good at something or you enjoy doing it, you’re still going to fail. Failure is part of the game. Could we talk a little bit about that?

Failure is 100% part of it. In fact, I was in an interview where I was talking about sports and they say, “Why do you love sports?” I’m like, “I love sports because it taught me as a child growing up that you’re going to lose and you’re going to fail, but there’s always that next game. You don’t know if you’re going to win or lose that next game, but there’s always that chance to win and hit that home run.” It’s even more applicable in business and life because you can fail 100 times in a row. If you win on the 101st time, that’s everything and that’s all that matters. That’s all people will know you for.

The 100-Day Goal Journal: Accomplish What Matters to You

Does anybody know me for all the failures I had before I launched Entrepreneurs On Fire? No, because they don’t care about that. I don’t care about that. We don’t spend any time talking about that. What they know me for is my one success, which was launching Entrepreneurs On Fire. That was my first and biggest win. That’s what propelled me to where I am today. It’s even better in business than sports because if you lose 100 times and you win 101 times, your record is 1 in 101. You still won, which is great, but it’s still a crappy record. In business, you just want to know you won the game and you can take that to the highest level. That’s why failure is part of it. It’s getting back up and swinging everything.

Thank you for that. That is a big difference. In business, you can become an overnight success immediately. It could take you 30 years to get there, but then suddenly, you’re there. It’s amazing. My perspective on failing is this. When we’re reaching for a goal and we’re trying to succeed, we are becoming the person who can succeed. We become a better version of ourselves as we’re reaching for that goal. The thing about failure is along the way, it shows us who we’ve become. How we deal with those failures and how we handle a challenge or a let down shows us who we have become along the way towards our success.

In a way, it’s a milestone and a necessary thing in creating success. Without it, we don’t grow better and we don’t become bigger. The goals aren’t as amazing in general. They’re also not as gratifying. If you buzz to the top, you’re not going to be as fulfilled as if you had to learn along the way. Failure is an amazing piece of the success formula. Could you tell us one daily practice, John, that you would say contributes to your personal success?

Every day, I do fifteen minutes of yoga. It’s stretching-focused yoga. It’s part of my daily rhythm. I love it because a stretch is a time that I’m contemplating my day in a meditative state. I’m relaxed and I’m doing deep breathing. I’m having this private enjoyable moment that’s great for my body, mind, and soul. It’s this nice quiet start to my day. I will take that over a cup of coffee any day. Although I still drink my coffee.

John, this has been amazing. Thank you for joining us and sharing all your amazing wisdom with my ladies.

“What this world needs is you living in your bliss, your best self, and you being on fire.” ~ Moneeka Sawyer

It’s beenawesome, Moneeka. Thanks for having me. Take care.

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Ladies, thank you for joining John and I for this portion of the show. Wasn’t it amazing? I am excited about starting off the year in a powerful way and helping you ladies achieve your goals. That’s what this show is all about. I’ve got more in EXTRA. I am going to be doing a process that helps you to integrate your goal into your future. What that will do is it will pull you forward almost seamlessly towards the goal that you want to work on that matters to you most. That’s what we’ve got in EXTRA. The other thing I wanted to mention is that I am going to be working on John’s journal so that I can reach my favorite goal, the one that matters most to me for the first 100 days of the year.

If you would like to join me on that, go ahead and purchase your copy of the journal. You can go to BlissfulInvestor.com/100dayjournal. Email me and I’m going to put together a list so that we can support each other towards meeting our goals. I’ll put together some videos about my process. I’ll help you, ladies, if you have questions. I have so much inspiration around this and I don’t want to let it go. I’d love you to join me through the whole process. We can do this together, but for now, stay tuned for Real Estate Investing for Women EXTRA so that I can take you through this amazing process to integrate your goals into your future.

If you are subscribed to EXTRA, stay tuned. It’s coming next. If not but you would like to be, please go to RealEstateInvestingForWomenExtra.com. You get the first seven days for free, so you can download this episode and you could download as many past episodes as you want to. You can just check it out and see if it’s for you. This might be exactly the time to get started on that extra step towards building your financial future. For those of you that are leaving us, thank you for joining me on this New Year episode of Real Estate Investing For Women. I appreciate you and I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, remember, goals without action are just dreams. Get out there, take action, and create the life your heart deeply desires. I’ll see you next time. Bye.

Important Links

• Entrepreneurs On Fire
• The 100-Day Goal Journal: Accomplish What Matters to You
• BlissfulInvestor.com/100dayjournal

About John Lee Dumas

John Lee Dumas is the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, an award winning podcast where he interviews inspiring Entrepreneurs who are truly ON FIRE.

With over 2000 episodes, 1 million + listens a month, and seven-figures of annual revenue, JLD is just getting started.

Visit https://swiy.io/eof to set YOUR Entrepreneurial journey ON FIRE!