How to Apply EOS (Traction) to Your Personal Life, Part 3
Now that your personal EOS (Traction) system is set up, it’s all about using it.
Alright, folks, we’re almost at the finish line!
This is the third and final week of setting up a personal version of EOS (Traction) to ensure your long-term goals and aspirations are reflected in your annual, quarterly, weekly, and daily pursuits.
If you missed this series’s first or second part, you’ll want to start from the beginning. This planning process is quite linear, and starting with step 3 would be suboptimal.
Today, we’re going to generate your Affirmation & Goals Sheet. Then, I’ll walk you through the personal EOS “cadence:” what you’ll do yearly, quarterly, weekly, and daily to ensure alignment between your near-term goals and long-term aspirations.
Setting Up Page 4 of the Personal V/TO
Since you’ve been tracking along each week, you have already downloaded and filled out pages 1-3 of the personal V/TO. (If not, start from the beginning!)
Now, let’s open up page 4 and walk through each section. Much of this is simply summarizing the items you’ve already developed.
Affirmations - In this section, write down a list of positive characteristics that describe you. What do people like about you? What do you like about yourself? If you’re approaching this from a religious perspective, what are truths about you that you’ve learned from your faith? Please don’t limit yourself to things that are true of you 100% of the time; we’re all flawed humans. Focus on what you are most of the time and what you’re growing towards.
This Quarter’s Rocks - List the “Goals for the Quarter” from page 3 in order of importance.
This Year’s Plan - List the “Goals for the Quarter” from page 3 in order of importance.
3-Year Picture - List the “What does this look like?” items from page 1 in order of importance.
10-Year Target - Turn your 10-Year Target paragraph from page 1 into a list of goals in order of importance.
The Personal EOS Cadence
Congratulations on completing the 4-page Personal V/TO document! You now have a well-organized, concise view of where you want to go and what you must do to get there.
But the last thing you want to do is put it in a drawer and forget about it.
Like all things, it requires intentional action to really work well. So, let’s dive into the “cadence,” so to speak, of running personal EOS.
Annually (1-2 days)
At the end of each calendar year, I recommend setting aside a day or two to review and update the 4-page Personal V/TO. Here are the steps I take.
Reflection: Spend a few hours reflecting on the past year. I love the personal reflection document Michael Girdly shared. Here are the questions he recommends asking yourself at the end of each year:
What were your most significant personal accomplishments of the past year?
What were your most significant professional accomplishments of the past year?
What were your biggest personal disappointments of the past year?
What were your biggest professional disappointments of the past year?
What is your life’s purpose?
What do you wish you had more of?
What are you most passionate about today?
If you stopped today (your career, specifically), would it be “enough?”
Are the best things in your life ahead or behind you? What determines that?
To what factors do you attribute any upward or downward trends? How do or should, these trends affect long-term planning?
What were your top three most significant learning experiences from the last year?
What keeps you from taking your (company, career, relationships, etc.) to the next level?
What is the single most strategic thing you need to accomplish next year?
V/TO Review: Now, go through your V/TO page 1 and be sure it still reflects what you want in your lifetime, the next 10 years, and the next three years. Then, update your 3-year picture (using the new date 3 years from now). Next, update your personal goals (page 2) for next year. You’ll likely check off a few items, retain a few, delete a few, and add a few. Make sure they “ladder up” to your 3-year picture!
Create a New Personal Plan (Page 3) - Now it’s time to once again generate your 1-year Plan. Set your new “Future Date” as the end of next year, update your Income target, Net Worth target, and measurables, then pull from next year’s Personal Goals on page 2 to come up with your top 5-10 Goals for the year. Next, update your Rocks section with a new date (03/31 of next year), targets, measurables, and Goals for the Quarter. (Make sure these goals support all of your annual goals!) Lastly, add or delete any issues on your “Issues List.”
Update the Affirmation & Goals Sheet - To end your planning session, update or edit your affirmations as needed and then update each of the 4 “goals” sections to reflect your new plan.
Quarterly (2-4 Hours)
At the end of each quarter, set aside 2-4 hours to update your V/TO, albeit to a lesser extent than the annual review.
Here’s a quick to-do list:
Reflect a bit on the past quarter. What worked? What didn’t work? What do you need to keep doing? What needs to improve? What do you need to stop doing? Or start doing?
Review page 1 of your V/TO. Did anything dramatic happen in the last quarter that requires you to make any edits? If so, edit!
Review page 2 of your V/TO. Cross off any annual goals you completed. Add any new goals that have popped up in the last 90 days.
Review your 1-year plan on page 3 of the V/TO. Make any updates needed.
Establish your new rocks for next quarter. As always, make sure they support your annual goals.
Add to or delete any issues that need to be updated or deleted.
Lastly, update your Affirmation & Goals sheet on page 4.
Weekly (30 Minutes)
At the end of each week (I prefer Friday afternoons), spend 30 minutes walking through the following questions and tasks:
What were a few “wins” from the past week?
Review this week’s “Big 3.” How did you do? (More on this below.)
What worked and what didn’t work this week?
What do you need to keep/improve/start/stop doing?
Take a look at your calendar for the next 3-weeks. Does anything trigger a to-do item?
Review your quarterly rocks from page 3 of the V/TO. Are you on track? If not, why?
Establish your “Big 3:” The three things you must do this coming week to support your quarterly rocks.
Now you’re ready to enter the weekend (if you do this on Friday) with a clear mind and a plan for Monday!
Daily (5-10 Minutes)
When you awake and before you go to sleep, read through your Affirmation & Goals sheet. Pause for a second or two after each goal and visualize it having come to fruition. It’s powerful!
So there you go! You are now finished setting up your personal EOS system and have a plan for maintaining it for the decades to come.
I hope this series did not overwhelm you. Instead, I hope it took a rather complex and intimidating task (building an operating system for your life) and made it attainable.
As always, if you have any questions or get stuck, I’m an email away at scott@scottmonday.com.
Lastly, I have a favor to ask: Would you share this email with one person you think may benefit from having a personal operating system like this? I think the world is a better place when we’re all working towards a future we’ve designed. If you agree, here is a handy little share button! Thank you!
Books of Note: You know a business book is gold when it’s still as pertinent (and perhaps more pertinent) 25 years after it’s written. And such is the case with Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles’ Raving Fans. This book is the foundation for customer service at my companies, and it’s worth your time if you care about your customers’ experiences.
I’d love a follow over on X (Twitter) and Linkedin, as I post things there that are either too brief for the newsletter or are just entertaining things I come up with over a responsibly-sized serving of Blanton’s.