Part of the guide: Personal Brand
I want you to pay attention as you read this, because as you pay attention you’re going to realize something interesting.
Over the last couple of days, I’ve talked a lot about goal setting.
Today, I want to talk about something bigger – a cycle.
A cycle all great leaders and achievers go through to accomplish their goals and create influence in their fields.
This is the formula for creating magic-like results in anything you touch.
It all starts with Vision.
1. Vision
Vision is dreaming of a better future. Seeing something of today, and envisioning, and dreaming up a better version of it tomorrow.
Vision can be small or large.
If it’s big enough, it can encompass the vision of thousands or millions of other people. Your vision, like my vision, can be big enough for everyone.
Because a unified vision is inexplicably more powerful than a single vision. That’s why we’ve been able to create such magic in a short time with Empower Network. One unified vision, 200,000 people.
The first step is to have a vision or be part of one. Your vision is your dream. However small or large, it has to be a dream of something better.
2. Goal Setting
The next step is to set goals, like I’ve talked about in the last couple of posts. Setting goals is easy, yet few people do it right.
Your goal should be set in STONE. Rock solid, unmovable.
The goal shouldn’t change until you’ve achieved it. The only way to make sure of that is to get really clear on what you want before setting the goal. Your goals should be specific, written on paper, measurable, realistic, and motivational all at the same time.
3. Game Planning
Game planning is the next step after goal setting. A game plan is how you’re going to achieve your goal. What action steps are you going to take to achieve it?
Game plans shouldn’t be set in stone, they should be set in SAND.
Game plans need to be flexible, and you need to know when to stop doing what’s not working and change course.
Like if a particular traffic generation strategy isn’t working or some kind of marketing funnel. If you decided to generate leads through a medium that’s not working, you need to stop it and adjust that part of the plan.
The game plan is like the vehicle, the strategy.
Always prioritize tasks in your game plan by creating a meta and micro strategy like I talked about in the last goal-setting post.
4. Working
The next step in the cycle of achievement is actually working.
The most powerful way to get other people to join your vision is to…
Lead by example. Now, maybe you’re doing something where other people can join your vision.
If you are, you need to cast out your vision. If you’re in the Network Marketing space, this makes a lot of sense. You can cast out your vision of creating a better more abundant future by building an organization.
Because YOU have a better way, and people can join that vision and cast it out themselves – inspiring others to unify their vision with yours.
Before you start the working process, always create a list of resources you have available to you, and figure out how to best utilize them. Learn to delegate and operate productively.
You were never meant to do this alone
Reading this changes nothing. Doing it with people who show up changes everything. That is the whole difference between the people who transform and the people who keep starting over.
Start free →Most importantly, be consistent.
5. Seeking Counsel
The last step in the great cycle of achievement is seeking counsel, asking for HELP. The biggest mistake you can ever make is thinking you’re smarter than everyone.
Not listening to the advice of people already in the position you want to be. Seek counsel in people who empower you and inspire you to be GREAT.
The kind of people who have already achieved what you want to achieve. Ask for help, and you’ll get it – eventually.
Always revise your strategy, look at and adjust your game plan, focus on what’s working, every single day.
That’s the cycle of achievement, and it works every time.
In prosperity
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts and comments below.
Comments
Rebecca Nguyen
This is such a powerful concept, David! The idea of a unified vision really resonates with me, and I can see how this cycle can help create lasting success. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Sam Mitchell
I’m having a hard time believing these results are achievable without more proof. Do you have any specific examples or case studies that demonstrate how this cycle has worked in real life?
Angela Martin
I love how you break down each part of the cycle, but I was wondering—what do you recommend for someone struggling to set clear goals? Any tips for clarity during the goal-setting phase?
Paul Garcia
While I appreciate your thoughts on goal setting, I feel like there’s a lot of emphasis on achieving success quickly, which isn’t always realistic for everyone. I think the post could benefit from discussing more long-term strategies.
Jasmine Patel
Hey David! This was a great read. I’ve been really busy lately, but your posts always remind me to stay focused on the bigger picture. Let’s catch up soon—been too long!
Ethan Alvarez
I faced a similar situation recently when trying to set my own goals. Your advice about game planning being flexible is spot-on. I had to adjust my plan several times, and it’s finally starting to work!
Marina Santos
This post reminds me of a tool I recently discovered that helps with goal setting and tracking—it’s called “Goalscape.” You might want to check it out, as it complements your approach perfectly!
Felix Morales
Thank you for this post, David. It really opened my eyes to how I can improve my approach to setting goals and staying consistent. I’ve learned a lot and will definitely be applying these steps in my own life!
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‘This is the formula for creating magic-like results in anything you touch’ is doing a lot of work in one sentence. Five steps that amount to dream something, write it down, adjust when it doesn’t work, do the work, ask for help — none of that is wrong, exactly. It’s also not a cycle unique to achievement. It’s just what doing anything looks like, dressed up as a discovery.
Marla’s not wrong that it’s an old shape, but the diner didn’t run itself just because I could name the five steps either. I had the vision the day I signed the lease, I had goals scrawled on a legal pad, and none of it kept the doors open through the slow winters. What actually mattered was the fifth thing this post buries at the bottom — asking the older owners down the road what they’d have done differently. I ignored that step for two years out of pride. Cost me more than any of the other four combined.
I think what’s being missed in some of the pushback here is that the post isn’t claiming these five steps are new, and it doesn’t need to be new to be useful. Most people I’ve worked with, including myself when I started late in this, don’t actually have a written game plan or a habit of seeking counsel before things go wrong rather than after. Knowing the shape of the cycle isn’t the same as living inside it. I’ve watched capable people skip straight from vision to working, no goal setting, no plan, and wonder why nothing compounds. Calling the framework obvious doesn’t make the fifth step, actually asking for help before you’re desperate, something people reliably do on their own.
Ade’s right that people skip the boring middle steps, though it makes me think of something unrelated — my bike shop’s busiest month every year is the one right after New Year’s, all vision, everybody’s got a plan for the season. By March half of them haven’t touched the bike. Not because the five-step cycle was wrong. Because step four, working, is the only one nobody can outsource to a blog post.
Step five, seeking counsel, assumes you already know people ahead of you who’ll take your calls. When you’re new working nights, that circle doesn’t exist yet.
‘Game plans set in sand, not stone’ — we called that adaptive selling in the eighties and ‘pivoting’ in the 2010s. The five-step cycle here is the same shape I’ve watched three different companies repackage since I started in this industry. Vision, goals, plan, work, counsel. It works because it’s just how humans finish anything, not because someone discovered it in a network marketing meeting.
The vision and goal setting parts translate everywhere, I think, but the ‘game plan’ section assumes traffic generation strategies and marketing funnels that mostly describe the American market. Here in Turkey the tools people use to reach customers online are quite different. Does this five step cycle still apply if the actual game plan looks nothing like the one described?
That’s the real split, Elif — the cycle’s universal, the tactics under ‘game planning’ aren’t. Keep the skeleton, rebuild the tools for your own market.