Welcome to The Business Academy. I'm trying something new this week. Read to the end to catch a fun piece of business history.

Last week I spent a couple of days with six incredible entrepreneurs.

We spent four hours working on our individual goals for the year.

The goals fall into 3 categories

1. Business Goals
2. Family Goals
3. Personal Goals

Below I'm going to share how you can conduct your own goal-setting for the year.

But first, if you don't have an accountability group, that should be your first goal for Q1 2024.

Start by selecting a group of people (6 to 9 people).

These people should be similarly career-ambitious to you. And in similar stages of family and life to you.

If you're married, it's best if they're married. If you have kids, it's best if they have kids or plan to have them soon...and so on.

Next, make the following commitments to each other to:

1. Be vulnerable, and deeply honest in a way that makes you uncomfortable at first
2. Show up, never miss, and be on time
3. Push each other and be always there for each other, no matter what
4. Meet once a month

We're all on our own journey in life. But our journeys are not that different.

Create a group of people who you care about, and who care about you. Think of these people as your Personal Board of Advisors.

Your personal board will guide you to live a better, more thoughtful life.

You will be a better parent, a better child, a better leader...etc.

And when things get difficult in life (they do inevitably for all of us). You'll have a group of people who know you well and can be there for you.

Now let's talk about planning for the year.

Here is a simple playbook you can follow.

We're going to start with the MOST important thing that everyone forgets.

Your energy state.

All of your goals and plans are downstream from your energy state.

If you have a productive energy state, you will achieve more and get closer to your goals.

If you have a poor energy state, all of your goals will seem harder.

So the first group of questions is to set your intended Energy State.

Your Energy State

Take a moment to answer these. Even if it's just in your own head. But don't just skim...answer them! It's for your benefit.

We're going to talk about "negative" states of energy first.

What are two suffering emotions that you over-indulge in most that take away from your quality of life? What type of suffering do you experience most?

Do you feel bad for yourself? or are you ashamed, or nervous, or anxious, or fearful? Or short, or impatient or angry? Or something else?

Get clear on what negative emotion you feel most often. if you can get this clear in your head. Next time this emotion pops you can squash it faster.

Remember we're aiming to create a positive energy state. We won't always feel a natural positive energy state, that's normal, so we have to learn to fabricate it.

YES, it is perfectly OK to fabricate your energy state. Fake it until you make it.

You will fabricate the energy state you want until you train your body and mind to naturally experience this energy state.

We intend to achieve our goals for the year. That's the main purpose of this exercise. To achieve our goals, we want to approach them with a beautiful energy state.

In this next step...

You need to get clear on how your "suffering" energy state hurts you in your day-to-day life. How does it prevent you from achieving your goals?

Even if you can't write this down right now. Think of some clear examples in your past of how having poor energy, or negative emotions you mentioned above has been a limiting factor for you. Or how has it harmed you or the people around you?

Have you been short with your spouse? Have you been absent mentally or physically with your kids? Are you missing an opportunity to be a better leader?....etc...

Finally...

Decide to pick a beautiful energy state when you approach any new task or opportunity.

Think of your goals. Imagine how the best version of you will approach those goals. And tell yourself how and why you will overcome any challenge in this positive energy state. Imagine it clearly in your mind.

How will you stand, how will you breathe, how will you speak...will you smile?

Now that we have decided to bring positive energy into our goals. We are more likely to achieve them.

I'll tell you how I set my goals.

I pick a clear short list of goals.

I don't like to have a long list of goals for the year. I get overwhelmed, and each goal feels less important.

My strategy is to set a single goal, that can have downstream positive effects on other parts of my life.

For example, if I want to set fitness goals, I won't list all of the individual goals.

• A bad example: I want to lose 10 pounds, I'm going to get 10,000 steps a day, I'm going to eat less carbs and eat more protein...etc.

No, that's not my strategy.

• A good example: I'm going to hire a personal trainer that I work with twice a week.

I know working with a personal trainer will make me train more, I will eat healthier and my competitiveness will drive me to elevate other parts of my health.

It's the same thing in business.

I don't set a lot of small goals. I set a couple of larger, concrete goals. The execution of those goals will force me to elevate a few different parts of my business to get there. So I don't need to mention those building blocks.

Here are my goals:

1. Business: acquire 2+ cash-flowing businesses of $3M+ in EBITDA + acquire 2+ hotels in our hospitality platform
2. Family: have a baby (yes!)
3. Personal: Go camping, and be in nature 5 times this year.

Here is my summary for goal setting.

1. Pick your energy state
2. Set 1 to 3 goals maximum in each of the three core categories
3. Pick goals that will transform your life, and have positive downstream effects
4. Be highly specific with those goals
5. Select an accountability group you can meet with once a month. Check in on those goals periodically.

I hope this helps you think differently about your goal setting.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

⭐ Fun Business History of The Week ⭐

Who invented canned soup?

In the 1830s, Napoleon Bonaparte was frustrated with his army's food spoiling on his international campaigns. He offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could find a way to preserve his food stores.

A man named Nicolas Appert rose to the occasion, and canning technology was born.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have a great week,

Sieva

ps: this week's newsletter is sponsored by Scribe Media. They help pay the bills around here...so if you have a friend who wants to write a book, let them know Scribe is the best publishing company in the industry. They used to be called "Book-in-a-box". It's exactly what it sounds like. Scribe demystifies the book publishing process and helps with the strategy, writing, editing, design, and publishing.

It's amazing (I'm a customer too).

Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. Reply back to this email to let me know, or pick one of the ratings below:

​

👉💰💰💰💰💰 Top-notch!​ ​​

👉💰💰 It’s ok​ ​

​👉 Not great, try again​​

Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning.