Trying to create 2023 goals can feel overwhelming. In addition to new business goals, do you beef up your virtual meeting skills, overhaul office safety protocols, or upgrade team collaboration software? This list could go on and on. But having too many goals can get you focused on too many things, which can hurt results. Fortunately, there’s a way to simplify your goals, gain control, and attain better results.

Question 2: “What’s one skill that, if I significantly improved on it, would have the biggest impact on my business—even if nothing else changed?”

Often, an activity that would positively affect your business is something that’s not currently one of your stronger skills. Continuing with the earlier example, if you don’t know how to effectively ask for referrals, asking for two referrals a week won’t be productive. In this scenario, you need a “learning pillar.”

A learning pillar requires dedicating time each week to develop a skill. There’s no shortage of articles, training, or books on how to increase referrals. If you dedicated two hours a week to learning and practicing this skill, you’d accumulate roughly 24 hours of concentrated learning in just three months. If a lack of referrals is holding back your business, implementing this type of learning pillar would be a great investment of your time.

The key to the learning pillar is selecting the right skill around which to create a pillar. You can learn many things to help boost your business, but you want to choose skills that will have the biggest influence relative to the time you’ll spend improving them.

Question 3: “What’s something I could organize, plan, or create in advance that would make the action much more effective?”

If one of your pillars is prospecting, you could establish another pillar to support your prospecting efforts. For example, creating a targeted prospecting list that considers dates, times, and circumstances to determine the best prospects to contact during the upcoming week. When you get into action, you won’t have to decide who to call or email, or when. It’ll already be done, allowing you to concentrate on making the connections. Creating this targeted list may take only 30 minutes, but the compound effect of consistently calling on prospects each week will be much more constructive than winging it.

After asking yourself the three questions, you should have plenty of ideas for pillars. Next, we’ll discuss how to choose the ones to work on in 2023 and tips for implementing them.

Third, Implementing Your Pillars

Ideally, you want three to six pillars for 2023. Three to six is a manageable number of goals that provide the ideal focus. If you need to reduce your list of possible pillars, rank them according to their potential impact on your business by asking: “If I can complete only one pillar from this list each week, which one would have the most positive impact on my business?”

Ask the question repeatedly until you’ve ranked all of your potential pillars. When answering it, disregard the time that will be needed to complete the pillar. After all, a 30-minute pillar may have a bigger impact than a two-hour one. The rule for trimming down your list of potential pillars, ranked in order of impact, is simple. Working from top to bottom, cut off the list at the point where you know you can complete your pillars, even during your busiest week.

Remember, your three to six pillars should fit on a business card.

Choose Pillar Activity Levels

Some pillars will be pass or fail. You’ll either complete the activity or you won’t (e.g., create a targeted prospecting list). Other pillars must be assigned activity levels, such as time spent on the activity or the number of actions that must be completed (e.g., send 15 prospecting emails).

Many people overestimate what they can accomplish in a week. Thus, it’s best to start at the low end. If you complete your pillars consistently, you can gradually raise your activity levels. It’s better to hit a smaller activity level (three for three) than to miss a larger one (five for six). Activity levels are minimums and you aren’t penalized for exceeding them.

“What If I Start Slipping On Completing Pillars?”

It would be frustrating if you go through the work of creating pillars, beginning to implement them, but lose focus and start falling short. To help avoid this scenario, find a peer or business partner to hold you accountable for completing your pillars every week. Just knowing that you’ll have to share your progress with someone each week can increase your motivation.

Remember Three Things When Setting Goals For 2023

First, realize that hard work alone isn’t always the secret to success. If you work hard on the wrong things, your results will suffer. Second, ask yourself the three questions to create potential pillars. Don’t rush. Take your time when answering these questions. Third, narrow your list of possible pillars by ranking them by their potential to help you achieve your goals—then select three to six.

Finding Focus During Times Of Complexity

Complexity has been on the rise in our projects, practice, and industry. It’s challenging to reverse this, but the rewards are extraordinary. Use the pillar system to identify goals you know you can achieve and identify the activities that can lead to predictable results.