• The purpose of your goals is to get you engaged and give you direction. Your goals could just as easily have been called your why, your outcome, your mission, your vision, your purpose, your objective, your reasons. This step is not about specifics, so the traditional rules of goal setting don’t apply here.
  • Your goals can be as vague or specific as you want
  • Your goals can be worded in a positive or negative way. Fear and desire are both great motivators, so both have their place.
  • You can have as many goals as you want
• The idea here is to write short, inspirational and engaging descriptions of what you are trying to achieve. Something that will get your juices flowing.
  • Examples might be
    • Live my best life
    • Financial freedom
    • Lose 10kg
    • Get awesome at piano
    • Run a marathon
    • Take more holidays
    • Stop wasting money on cigarrettes
    • Get healthy
    • Fix my sore knees
    • Stop wasting my potential
    • Make my home a beautiful sanctuary
    • Give more to charity
    • Have more fun with friends and family
    • Get a better job
    • Learn some good jokes
• Over time these goals will gain clarity as you become more familiar with what resonates for you. Feel free to stick these on post-it notes on your mirror, or anywhere else you will see them.

• Now that you have more of an idea of what you want, it’s time to get specific. What are the specific activities that will move you towards your most important goals? When will you do them? This is your plan. You can put these directly into the Ops Matrix
  • Example… Let’s say some goals around fitness are resonating for you.
    • Goals
      • Get super fit
      • Get into my favourite old jeans
      • lose 10kg
      • Feel great
      • Increase my energy
      • Turn heads
      • Run a marathon
      • Beach ready for my holiday in the Bahamas
      • Stop the pain in my shoulder
  • Some activities you might choose to do are
    • Go the the gym 3 days a week
    • Run 2 times a week
    • No more buying chocolate
    • max 1600 calories (except cheat days)
    • Read about health and nutrition every day
    • do shoulder rehab exercises 3 times a week
  • Don’t worry if your plan isn’t perfect. Your plan is going to change anyway.
    • As Mike Tyson said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
    • In the military they say “No plan survives contact with the enemy”.
    • That doesn’t mean Mike went into the ring without a game plan, and the military don’t charge into battle without a plan either. It is just making the point that when it comes time to execute a plan, you are doing it in a dynamic and unpredictable environment and that you need to be ready to adapt to the changing circumstances. Have a plan, but be ready to adapt.
    • Your plans to reach your goals are the same. In the case of your goals, the enemy is your changing life circumstances and your changing moods and motivation. You need a plan, and you need to be ready to change it when necessary.

You’ve got a plan, now you are going to see how it holds up in the real world using the Ops Matrix. This lets you see reality. What parts of the plan are actually being completed? What parts were wishful thinking? What part of your plan is surviving contact with the enemy, and what part is not? The Ops Matrix gives you the early feedback you need to change your plan.

• Your key results are the metrics that let you know if you are being successful in achieving your goals. They are a lag measure.
  • Lag and Lead measures explained
    • Lag Measure: A lag measure is a metric that measures your progress towards a goal. You can’t “do” a lag measure. They measure the results after the lead measures have already been taken. They “lag” behind the lead measures. The only way to move the lag measures is by acting on the lead measures.
    • Lead Measures: Your lead measures are the activities that can be acted upon. This is your plan. By completing these activities, your aim is to move your lag measure in the right direction.
  • Example:
    • Goal: Lose weight
    • Lag Measure: Number of kg lost
    • Lead Measures:
      • Go the the gym 3 days a week
      • Run 2 times a week
      • No more buying chocolate
      • max 1600 calories (except cheat days)
      • Read about health and nutrition every day
      • do shoulder rehab exercises 3 times a week

• Lead Measure Score
  • In the heat of battle, you need to keep it simple so that you stay on track. Complexity is the enemy. Your goal every day is simple. Score 100 on the Ops Matrix Scoreboard. If you’re scoring 100, you’re acting according to your plan.
• Lag Measure Score
  • The next thing to see on your scoreboard is if executing your plan is having the impact you want on your key results. If you’re following the plan, and it isn’t moving the lag measures, then you need to change your plan. If you’re following the plan, and it is a good plan, you will see your key results moving in the right direction. This score lets you know if you are winning.
• Note that currently the Ops Matrix doesn’t currently track Key Results (lag measures). An easy solution is writing down the key result each week on a whiteboard until I finish building the Key Results into the Ops Matrix tool.

• The key to building a winning culture is to acknowledge the real wins that are coming about due to the execution of your plans. Nothing breeds success like success. A win is any action big or small that gets you closer to your goals.
• Once you have acknowledged your wins, it is also a good time to review if there are bigger and better wins available. You do this by ensuring you are still clear on what goals are inspiring to you, and being confident that following the plan is strongly connected with the goal, and it is the best way to get you there. In essence, you want to review the first 5 steps in the Record Breaker System and add one final step of Reflecting.
  • Step 1 – Know your goals (get inspired)
    • Do you know your most important goals?
    • Do they need to change?
  • Step 2 – Know your plan (lead measures)
    • Do you know your plan?
    • Does it need to change?
  • Step 3 – Know your current situation (make current work visible)
    • Do you know your current situation?
    • Do you have the current information you need to make the best decisions?
  • Step 4 – Know your Key Results (lag measures)
    • Do you know your key results?
    • Do you know the key results that move when you are making progress towards your goals?
    • Have they changed?
  • Step 5 – Know the score (keep it simple)
    • Do you know the score?
    • At a glance, can you see how your plan is being executed, and its effect on the key results
  • Step 6 – Reflect
    • Remember that success is not about checking boxes, it is about achieving your goals, whatever they might be.
    • The Record Breaker System is a way to reach your goals and feel good about it. If checking the boxes is becoming a grind, change the plan until every completed operation feels 100% connected with your real goals.
    • If the whole plan is becoming stale, it may be because you have unwritten goals to have more variety, be more spontaneous, and have less structure. You can certainly try to build that into the system, or you can wipe the slate clean and see if you find a new and better plan that gets you to your goals in a completely different way.
    • Be liberal putting life affirming operations into your plan. Dinner with friends once a week is a perfectly good operation. Listen to a new song every day. Get a massage once a week. Take a walk. Have a fancy treat. Plan my dream holiday. Call a friend.