Have you ever worked hard day in and day out, week after week, only to find yourself wondering why you’re even doing what you’re doing?

Sometimes we are so focused on climbing the ladder that we don’t notice it’s leaning against the wrong wall — and this is because there are unintended consequences to setting your goals by looking forward.

When you set goals looking forward, you miss the most important part of goal setting: where you’re going and why you’re going. If you don’t have that purpose and priority before you set your goals and start working away at them, you can’t be productive. So, in this episode, Clay Clark, Founder of ThriveTime Show, is going to share when he realized he was living a life by default and how he started living a life by design.

No one succeeds alone — yet, most people try to.

One of the biggest mistakes we see people making is that they set goals by themselves, and then they struggle throughout the year because the people who are in their life — the people who have to buy into their goals if they want to accomplish them — aren’t on the same page.

That’s why we created The ONE Thing Couple’s Goal-Setting Retreat, modeling an exercise that Jay and Wendy Papasan have been doing for the past decade. The point isn’t to negotiate for whose goals are right, but for each person to understand what the other person’s goals are and how they can support the other person in achieving those goals. In this episode, we’re going to look at what happens when a couple, for the first time, sets their goals together. The results are pretty amazing, but here’s the best part: you can do it too.

When you set your goals, are you doing it by yourself or with your significant other?

When we’re not aligned with the people who are most important to us, the people who have a significant stake in our lives, we’re eliminating one of the most powerful support systems we have — and putting obstacles in the path of our goals. So how can we get them on board with the goal-setting process, even if they’re not goal setters themselves?

In this episode, we’re going to look at what one couple did in this exact situation, Kaelyn Loes and Brent Wallace. One of them was your prototypical goal setter — they read the book, listened to the podcast, used productivity apps — while the other felt that the goal-setting process restricted them at times. But today, they go on this journey together, and in this episode you’ll learn about the tools and conversations that helped them come into alignment.

What were you taught about setting goals as a kid?

If we’re taught anything, we’re usually taught to set goals around New Year’s. But now, as we head into the last quarter of the year, is actually the perfect time to start considering our goals for the upcoming year.

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan show us that, if you want to have great success, you have to have a bigger view of time — and you have to understand that the actions you take today may not have results until days or months down the road. So, in this episode, Jay and Wendy Papasan are going to share how they’ve been setting goals for years and how you can apply these simple practices into your own relationship and/or business, even if the other people in your world aren’t goal setters.

Where are you on the journey of TIME?

We start by treading to keep our heads above water. Then we start implementing some of the systems, followed by eventually mastering those systems. And towards the end of the journey, eventually, we will all want to turn around to empower others — especially our family.

Today, we are going to meet a couple, Brock and Angie Nyborg, who were introduced to The ONE Thing just over a year ago. We really respect that they didn’t just consume the content, but backed it with action — and in this episode, you’re going to hear how they’re life and family have changed over the past year.

The ONE Thing is about the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results — but anyone who has tried knows that simple doesn’t mean easy.

Life throws us curveballs. We lose clarity on what The ONE Thing is. We struggle to protect our time blocks when life happens. We are taking on more and looking for higher levels of achievement, but the models and systems we have in place are being stressed. How, in those moments, can we get back on track?

Today, our guest is Chris Hofmann, who is a member of our Living Your ONE Thing Community. He was well on his way to building a career as a successful executive, counterbalancing that with a great family life, when his world was turned upside down by a series of strokes. Before he knew it, simple tasks were no longer so simple — but he used The ONE Thing to put his life back together.