Guest: Ashley S. Murphy, CFP® AIF® CEPA™, Founder and Executive Director at Global Financial Planning Institute and Founder and Principle at Arete Wealth Strategists.

Insight: Where do you want to be at the end of next year? Most of us can see the top-line goals we want to achieve. What’s harder is identifying the smaller steps you have to take every day to get to that destination. And what’s harder still is having the discipline to keep taking those steps, even on the days when you’re just not feeling it. One common characteristic of the highest achievers I’ve talked to on my podcasts is that they’ve all settled into a daily routine that puts them in the right physical, mental, and emotional space to complete those select, specific tasks. If your approach to goal-setting needs a shake-up, start experimenting with your routine now. When the calendar flips to the New Year, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.

3 Quotes from Ashley Murphy:

1. The first thing at the top of my Goals, Dreams and Aspirations document is I remind myself, “meditation and state generation.” I want to get in that optimal state in the morning. Second is review the goals so that my brain is primed to focus and get accomplished what matters. Third, the success shifter, that’s something taken from the Stephanie Bogan program, and it’s essentially basic daily habits to stay in good physical, psychological, and business health and giving yourself points for doing certain activities. So if you call a friend, if you call a colleague, if you spend time with your kids, then you will award points. So it’s just reminding you to do those things regularly. Fourth would be staying in touch with a wellness therapist and fifth with a business coach. So those are my energy entourage, what I think of when I get myself in my best and highest state.

2. The difference in content versus experience is to really stop and meditate and say, What does it feel like in your body to feel proud? What does it feel like to be fulfilled? What does it feel like to be interested and motivated by something? If you want to build the leading firm dealing in some cross-border matter, it’s nice to say that. But when you stop and think about it, that sounds good but I don’t physically feel interested in doing that. Is that going to be interesting to me? Am I going to be engaged? Am I going to be excited and jump out of bed to do that? And the answer is probably no. So knowing what that feels like to you and recognizing that feeling.

3. There are certain things that I do every day, like looking at the goals. I do a quarterly retreat, go away for a couple of days, just sit in a hotel and just work, work, work on the goal-setting. And one of the activities that I do there is I ask myself what activities will most move the needle with my businesses? Is implementing my content marketing plan, getting awareness out, going to make the biggest difference? Refining our prospecting process? Continuing with internal efficiencies? Those are the things that make the biggest difference. That’s how I try and ground myself. It’s understanding there are things to do on a weekly basis. Look through all of this every week, so you don’t lose touch. But more on a daily basis, just go back to what are the shorter-term quarterly goals and what’s going to move the needle and see that the activities that you’re executing are aligned with that.

Resources

Ashley Murphy on LinkedIn