Ever wondered why your New Year's resolutions or professional goals never seem to stick? It might be because they're just insubstantial words on a notecard. So, what's the solution? Visualization!

Join me, your host, as I chat about my recent conversation with the wonderful Julie Anixter, a strategy mapping expert who will change how we think about goals forever. If you're all about turning your dreams into reality, we'll walk you through the art of creating a compelling strategy map, a tool that can help you keep your eyes on the prize and make your aspirations tangible.

Julie's strategy guides you through setting specific actions that pull you toward your objectives rather than push you away. We're not just talking about vague concepts - we provide real, actionable steps. We'll even teach you how to keep this strategy map in sight (think wallpapering your workspace with it) to dramatically boost your commitment to your goals.

Buckle up - here's your course to success with the extraordinary Julie Anixter's strategy, and her visually powerful strategy mapping.

I'm a big fan of visualization. I met a great lady close to us, Julie Anixter, and we became really good buddies. She showed me what their company does, which is strategy mapping. It's really interesting what she does. We do something similar with coaching maps. One of the things that she does is visualization of strategy.

It's just like what your New Year's resolution starts out being, or your end-of-year goals for next year, and what do we do with those.

There are two schools of thought:

#1: Visualize it. Create a visualization strategy.

#2: Get a partner. We'll talk about that more in the next podcast episode.

For this one, we're sticking with #1, visualize it.

Create a strategy map- have your major goals at the top, then have your objectives, then have your actions under that, and the last step is to visualize it.

The actions have to be specific. It can't be just practice. Maybe it's, "I have to practice conversations of conflict fluently, flawlessly, without fear or hesitation, so it positions me to reach my goal of becoming a future leader." That's a really constructive action.

Think about creating a strategy map. Then think about wallpapering it. It may sound crazy but try it. You have to put your strategy down on paper or a notecard and place it where you can visualize it every day. You can see it daily.

If you take ten people who have goals and they write them down on a note card and put them on their desk, versus ten people who create strategy maps and put it by their monitor, or by their desktop, or on the refrigerator, or up on a whiteboard where they work, which group will be more successful or more likely to stay with their goals and objectives and actions?

The ones who visualize it.

Remember, visualize your goals. Create a strategy map.

LEARNING PROJECTS FOR GOAL SETTING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Write down the goal and objective of what they want to develop (a skill, receive a certification, or a position), then write down three action steps they need to take to achieve it. They need to be measurable or quantifiable. Write down a strategy or an action plan to achieve those three steps. It could be something like read a specific book or take a specific course, etc.

• Write down 2 examples where you have taken steps toward achieving the goal or the action step needed to achieve that goal. Those are reminders to yourself, to make you feel good about making progress.

• Write down one idea where you'd like to devote more emphasis on your action plan or strategy map. Write out additional actions you need to take to achieve it. Put it somewhere you will see every day, like on the fridge, your mirror, or taped to the side of your computer screen, etc.

• Shadow someone or ask someone skilled in the area you want to progress in or the position you'd like to achieve if they are willing to mentor you.

We have created a new service called Coach2YOU, where leaders can assist short, targeted 7-day to 21-day programs to coach their employees without ANY of their own time, to truly partner and assist in the coaching process.

Get more info here: https://form.jotform.com/233504052497051