Goals & Progress
Why a blank page is the hardest place to start
I have lost more good intentions to a blank page than to any lack of ambition. When I sit down to plan the next few years of my life and the page just stares back, the size of the question freezes me, so I write something safe and forgettable and move on. This worksheet exists to fix that. Instead of handing you an empty grid and wishing you luck, it asks you the right questions in the right order, so the answers almost write themselves. You can work through every exercise below right here on this page. Each one is short, each one builds on the last, and by the end you will have something honest to plan around. Take it slowly. There is no prize for finishing in one sitting.
What You Will Learn
- How to surface the handful of values that actually shape your decisions, rather than the ones that sound good.
- How to imagine three believable versions of your future and pull a single Summit Goal out of them.
- How to turn that goal into a real plan with an Outcome Map and a Friction Map.
- How to set Success Measures so you can tell progress from motion.
- How to run a short weekly check-in that keeps the plan alive instead of buried.
- How a worksheet and a reusable template fit together, and when to use each one.
Key Takeaways
- A worksheet beats a blank page because it sequences the thinking. You answer small, concrete prompts instead of one overwhelming question.
- Good goals are downstream of values and a vision. Skip those steps and you tend to chase someone else’s targets.
- A goal without a plan for friction is a wish. Naming the obstacles in advance is the part most people leave out.
- Plans survive through review. A few honest minutes each week matter more than a perfect plan written once.
Why a worksheet beats a blank page
A template gives you the structure: clean boxes for your values, your Summit Goal, your plan, and your weekly notes. That is genuinely useful once you know what goes in each box. The trouble is that structure alone does not tell you what to write. Faced with an empty field labelled “Summit Goal”, most of us either freeze or reach for the first plausible answer.
A worksheet does something different. It breaks the big question into a sequence of smaller ones and asks them in an order that builds. You start with what matters to you, move to where you want to end up, then work out how to get there and how to stay on course. By the time you reach the hard questions, you have already done the thinking that makes them answerable. The prompts below are written to be answered, not admired. Read each one, then write your reply in the space provided or in a notebook beside you.
Worksheet 1: Your values
Values are the quiet criteria behind your best and worst decisions. Most of us have never written them down, which is why our goals so often drift toward what looks impressive rather than what feels right. This exercise is deliberately short. Answer honestly and quickly, before the part of your mind that wants to sound admirable catches up.
- Think of a recent day you felt genuinely satisfied with how you spent your time. What were you doing, and who was it for?
- Think of a recent decision you regret. What did you trade away, and what does that tell you you care about?
- Whose way of living do you quietly admire? Name one or two people and write the single quality you envy most.
- If you could protect only three things about your current life from any change, what would they be?
- Now read your four answers back. Write the three to five words or short phrases that keep showing up. Those are your working values.
Keep this short list nearby. Every later exercise should answer to it. For a deeper walkthrough of turning these into direction, see how to move from values to goals.
Worksheet 2: Three Futures
Before you commit to a single goal, it helps to see more than one path. The Three Futures exercise asks you to sketch three believable versions of your life a few years out, then compare them. The point is not to predict the future. It is to surface possibilities you would otherwise never write down, and to notice which ones you actually want.
Give each future a few honest sentences. Write in the present tense, as if you are already living it.
| Future | Prompt | Your answer |
|---|---|---|
| The likely path | If nothing major changes and you keep going as you are, where are you in three to five years? | |
| The blocked path | If your current main plan became impossible, what would you build instead? | |
| The wild card | If money, fear, and other people’s opinions did not count, what would you actually chase? |
Now read the three side by side. Underline anything that appears in more than one future, because that points to a genuine preference. Circle anything in the wild card that surprised you, because that often points to something you have quietly set aside. From those marks, write one sentence describing the future most worth pursuing. That sentence is the first draft of your Summit Goal, the single ambition the rest of your plan will serve. The full version of this exercise is here: the Three Futures exercise and your Summit Goal.
Worksheet 3: Your Goal Plan
A Summit Goal is a direction, not yet a plan. To make it real, you build a Goal Plan in two halves. The Outcome Map describes what success concretely looks like and how you will measure it. The Friction Map names what will get in the way and what you will do when it does. Most people write the first half and skip the second, which is exactly why so many plans quietly fail.
Outcome Map
Start by making success specific. Vague goals cannot be checked, and what cannot be checked tends not to happen.
- Write your Summit Goal in one clear sentence. If it still feels fuzzy, sharpen it until a stranger could picture the result.
- Describe what your life looks like once this goal is achieved. Be concrete: what is different about an ordinary week?
- Set two or three Success Measures: signals you could point to that prove real progress. Make them observable, not feelings.
- Name the very next physical action you could take this week. Small is fine. Startable is the only requirement.
Friction Map
Now plan for the obstacles before they arrive. Naming friction in advance turns a future excuse into a decision you have already made.
| What will get in the way | Your if-then response |
|---|---|
| Likely obstacle one | If this happens, then I will… |
| Likely obstacle two | If this happens, then I will… |
| The one that usually stops you | If this happens, then I will… |
Keep each response simple and pre-decided, so that in the moment you are following a plan rather than relying on willpower. For the longer treatment, see the guide to building a Goal Plan with an Outcome Map and Friction Map.
Worksheet 4: The weekly check-in
A plan written once and never revisited is just a nice memory. The weekly check-in is how the plan stays alive. It is meant to be quick, five honest minutes at a fixed time you will actually keep. Answer the same few prompts each week.
- What did I do this week that moved me toward my Summit Goal?
- Where did friction show up, and did my if-then response hold?
- What is the one thing I will move forward next week?
- Does my plan still point where I want to go, or does something need adjusting?
These weekly notes are the smallest level of the Goal Cascade, the chain that runs from Values to Purpose to your Summit Goal and down through Annual, Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily action. You can see how the whole chain connects in the guide to the Goal Cascade from Summit Goal to daily action.
How to use these together
The four worksheets are designed to be done in order, because each one feeds the next. Values come first, the Three Futures exercise turns those values into a direction, the Goal Plan turns that direction into something workable, and the weekly check-in keeps the whole thing honest over time. Skipping ahead tends to produce confident-looking goals built on nothing.
Pacing matters as much as order. Worksheets one and two are reflective and benefit from a little distance. Worksheet three is sharper and easier once you are clear on what you actually want. The check-in then simply repeats, week after week, for as long as the goal is alive.
Once you have your answers, drop them into the reusable structure so they stay in front of you. The worksheet is where you do the thinking; the life goals template is where you keep it. The two are companions: the worksheet asks the questions, the template holds the answers. If you want the wider picture of how all of this fits, the life goals hub ties the pieces together.
Prefer a digital version that walks you through these same steps and keeps your weekly check-in for you?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between this worksheet and the life goals template?
The worksheet is a set of guided exercises that help you work out your answers, with prompts in a deliberate order. The template is the reusable structure you copy those answers into and keep in view. Use the worksheet to think, and the template to remember. Most people start here and move to the template once their answers are clear.
How long does the worksheet take to complete?
There is no fixed time, and rushing defeats the purpose. Many people spend perhaps an hour on the values and Three Futures exercises, leave them overnight, then spend another sitting on the Goal Plan. The weekly check-in afterwards takes only a few minutes. Treat the first pass as a draft you can refine.
Do I need to print it, or can I work through it on the page?
You can answer every prompt right here as you read, in a notebook beside you, or in any document you like. The exercises are written to be filled in wherever you are most likely to keep them. What matters is that your answers live somewhere you will look at again.
What is a Summit Goal, and how is it different from a normal goal?
A Summit Goal is the single, longer-term ambition that everything else points toward. A normal goal might sit at any level and in any direction. The Summit Goal sits at the top of the Goal Cascade and gives your annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals a shared destination, so your smaller efforts pull in the same direction.
What if my answers change after I finish?
They should, and that is healthy. Values clarify, circumstances shift, and a goal you set in good faith can stop fitting. The weekly check-in includes a prompt for exactly this, asking whether your plan still points where you want to go. Treat the worksheet as a living draft, not a contract.
Can I use the worksheet for more than one goal at a time?
You can, but it is usually wiser not to. A single Summit Goal is easier to plan around and far easier to protect from friction. If two ambitions genuinely matter, run the worksheet for each separately rather than blending them, and be honest about which one comes first when your week gets crowded.
