Layers

# Chapter 241

Layered goals is what you are after. They have exponential effects. It works like this in my life and in how I do it with clients that I work with around the world. There is this big whopping goal that you have out there in your mind and you simply have to, have to reach it! Big whopping goals like this sometimes take years or decades to reach. They are so overwhelming you don’t even know where to start! This is pretty much true of everyone so don’t feel special here, but at the same time how do you do it?

I most often work backwards from the goal or destination to the present. For example with a client, they had a big whopping goal that had to be reached at a five year mark. So I wrote that down at the top of the page. And then I asked him to unwind the goal backwards, meaning what happens in the year prior to year five? In other words what has to happen right before you can reach this milestone, this goal? That became year four’s goal. Then we went through the same process for year three, what has to occur in order for us to reach this intermediate step of year four? And we continued this repeating this process for each year. Now we have a page with the overall big whopping end goal written at the top, and then four years of subgoals listed for each of the years leading you to your big whopping destination.

We then break down each of those yearly subgoals into quarterly goals on separate pages. These quarterly goals will make sure we reach our yearly markers and keep us aligned. I am pleased to report that the client reached his big whopping goal and that he is a happy customer. The key here is not just writing this all out, but in seeing and treating each step as a critical goal in and of itself. This is the way to build Rome.