Grit and determination are important factors in achieving your biggest goals—but without a system to focus your efforts around, it can be easy to wind up off track. You might be looking to start your next business, save for retirement, or buy your first home. Whatever the goal, having a system to keep you focused and engaged every step of the way is imperative to your success. One such system, called the 4DX method, helps you do just that.
What is the 4DX Method?
The 4DX method is a goal-setting framework that hinges on four critical components of execution: focus, leverage, engagement, and accountability. When put into practice, it effectively provides you with more clarity, sustainability, and momentum as you work towards your goals. Having the right execution system can significantly impact your journey and potential for success, and the 4DX method helps you get there.
Wildly Important Goals
The 4DX method hinges around what it called your Wildly Important Goals. What’s different about your goals in the context of the 4DX method is that you can only choose those that are “wildly important”, or in other words, only the goals that will move you closer to the overarching vision. It’s easy to have hundreds of goals you want to achieve, but the probability of achieving them when your focus is spread so thin is slim. By only focusing on the most important goals, you’re empowered to move the needle on them by giving them your full focus and attention.
Discipline 1: Focus
High-quality action is always the result of acute focus. The first discipline of focus exists to deter you from getting distracted by less important action items: while they might be on your to-do list, they might not be imperative to reaching your Wildly Important Goal. The first discipline is all about prioritizing only what matters and taking action on it, and leaving the rest.
Discipline 2: Leverage
Many make the mistake of measuring their progress based on past performance (lag measures) rather than future successes (lead measures.) A lag measure is a statistic that measures a goal, while a lead measure is predictive and can be influenced.
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For example, a business owner might be measuring his success based on the number of sales he made last month. While it makes sense in theory, his measure of success is rooted in the past. The 4DX method uses predictive measures instead—the required activities that drive desired outcomes. So, to use a lead measure, the business owner might instead track the number of promotional offers run last month. Notice that this lead measure can both predict and influence the number of sales made last month, while the lag measure is just a record of what’s happened. Lead measures are proactive and push you closer to your goal.
Discipline 3: Engagement
The next discipline is about finding engagement by creating a compelling scoreboard to track where you are and where you need to go. The purpose is to keep you motivated and actively engaged on the path towards your goals.
A compelling scoreboard should be easy to read and understand at a quick glance. With just a look, you should be able to see exactly where you stand and whether or not you’re on track towards your goals.
Discipline 4: Accountability
The first 3 disciplines so far are developed around providing the focus, clarity, and engagement needed to successfully reach your goals. The last discipline provides the last critical component, accountability, to push you towards the finish line. Regularly assessing what you’ve accomplished and where you’re falling short allows you to proactively track your performance and course-correct when necessary.
When it comes to achieving your biggest goals, going in with a plan can help you reach them in the most sustainable and efficient way possible. To learn more about the 4DX Method, this visual created by CreditRepair expands on each discipline of execution even further and shows how you can implement it in your own life according to your specific goals.
Check out the infographic developed by CreditRepair.com
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