Try This if Goal Setting Isn’t Working – Episode #320

After working on New Year’s resolutions for a couple of weeks, how are you doing? Do you feel setting goals helps? Or is it an exercise in futility for you? The data shows those who set goals do achieve more, but goal-setting clearly doesn’t work for most people. On this episode of the Dentist Money™ Show, Ryan and Matt look at what to do to ensure you reach your long-term objectives.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Ryan Isaac:
Hello, everybody! Welcome back to another episode of the Dentist Money Show, brought to you by Dentist Advisors, a no-commission fiduciary, comprehensive financial planner just for dentists all over the country. Check us out, same place, dentistadvisors.com. Happy New Year. Thank you, welcome back. Welcome if you’re new. We’re really excited. Matt and I… Today on the show, we’re gonna talk about goal-setting, some of the common problems that happen in goal-setting and financial goal-setting, and some new paradigms, some ways to think about setting your goals for this year, or maybe you’re just continuing some goals that were in the works, in process already from last year or years past, which is totally great, too. So, thanks for joining us today. If you wanna chat with us directly, you can always go to dentistadvisors.com, click the Book Free Consultation link, and book a consultation… A friendly chat with one of our dental-specific, very friendly advisors today, or if you wanna just ask us a question directly and get a quick answer, go to the Dentist Advisors Discussion Group on Facebook. Post a question, we’ll post an answer, and probably use it for a podcast, but thanks for being here, and enjoy the show.

Announcer:
Consult an advisor or conduct your own due diligence when making financial decisions. General principles discussed during this program do not constitute personal advice. This program is furnished by Dentist Advisors, a registered investment advisor. This is Dentist Money. Now, here’s your host, Ryan Isaac.

Ryan Isaac:
Welcome to the Dentist Money Show, where we help dentists make smart financial decisions. I am Ryan Isaac, and I’m here with the Hollywood Mountain… The nickname’s not going anywhere, Hollywood Mountain, Matt Mulcock. Happy New Year. What’s up, Matty?

Matt Mulcock:
Happy New Year, Ryan. You teased me, I thought we were beyond it, but here we are, here we are.

Ryan Isaac:
New year, same name. We’re gonna do that…

Matt Mulcock:

New year, same name. Good to be here, as always.

Ryan Isaac:
So, it’s the new year, and… It’s that time. I saw a really funny tweet. New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday last week, right? That was January 1st.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
I saw this tweet from a nutritionist friend of mine, and it said something about, “Shoutout to everyone who just set their nutrition goals who are already saying “I will start on Monday.””

Matt Mulcock:
[laughter] It’s so true.

Ryan Isaac:
‘Cause there was…

Matt Mulcock:
That’s the thing, because January 3rd was that Monday, and so it’s like yeah, like… You know… It’s like, “Well, it’s a weekend, so let’s start on Monday,” so it’s really… Yeah. It’s so true.

Ryan Isaac:
So good, man! And that was just… And it was so true, because it was like, January, New Year’s Day’s a Saturday, like you’re gonna start your goals on a Saturday.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Come on, come on. Well, and it’s funny, ’cause a lotta people in our circles… You know… Not you anymore, ’cause you’re not in Utah, but me being here in Utah, the Utah Utes football team, shout out, went to the Rose Bowl, which was on New Year’s Day. I was there, I went to the game. It was a fantastic game. Sad results.

Ryan Isaac:
Sad result. Good game, but sad result. Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Sad result, but great game. But, same thing, so it’s like New Year’s Day, it’s like, you’re at the game… It’s the weekend, you’re traveling, it’s like, “I’m not starting my health… ”

Ryan Isaac:
Your squat routine? [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
“Healthy eating goals now. I’m gonna wait till Monday.”

Ryan Isaac:
I’m not running today.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, come on.

Ryan Isaac:
I’ll start on… I just thought that was so funny, it was so true, and there was just so much built into that, because… It’s funny, because that’s how we all behave. [chuckle] We just…

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, of course.

Ryan Isaac:
We set goals, and then we’re just like, “I’ll do it,” and I… Man, I’m king of procrastination, so the shade’s on me, but… I just…

Matt Mulcock:
It’s “Oh, we’re making fun of ourselves.” It’s so easy to be… To be disciplined… For your future self to be disciplined. It’s like, it’s so easy.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, yup. We are going to… We’re gonna talk about… We’re gonna talk about the subject of goal-setting, which I think is funny, ’cause I’m not a goal-setter in that… In a really traditional sense. I don’t… We’ll get to that. So this is kind of a funny… Like, maybe we’re just gonna think out loud, and this’ll be a therapy session, and maybe I’ll come away with better goal-setting habits, but… I actually am very envious of people who are… You know those people that are really extremely detailed in their goal-setting, like they… It’s just dialed down? They’re the kinda people who have their calendars marked out by 15-minute increments. I think I’m describing Reese Harper here.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. [chuckle] The Hoss, yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, the Big Hoss. Just so detailed and… I just know people like that, and I don’t possess that… That mindset, and I… A lot of those people are very successful, and I think it’s cool. I was curious though, what’s the history? Have you ever wondered what’s the history of New Years resolutions? You know?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, of course. We were talking about this as we were getting ready for this.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. So much of this also has to do with the calendar system which we use, which has a whole other history too, which is kinda cool, but the… Probably the oldest civilization to do New Years… Well, and New Years at this time… This was like 4000 years ago, with the…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, like the Phoenicians or something?

Ryan Isaac:
It was the… Yeah, the Babylonians first.

Matt Mulcock:
Oh, Babylonians, okay.

Ryan Isaac:
Which, for all I know, could have been the same thing as the Phoenicians, because I don’t know anything.

Matt Mulcock:
Who knows.

Ryan Isaac:
I don’t know anything at all. But the ancient Babylonians, like, 4000 years ago, their… Their new year, though, kind of began mid-March, so that’s why I say the calendar system. The calendar system changed, I think, in Rome. I think that’s where January 1st, because it was named for Janus, it was named after this two-faced god. And that’s where January came from in the calendaring system around January, but it used to start in March, and the Babylonians, what they’d do is they would make promises to their gods to pay off their debts and return any borrowed objects. That was like…

Matt Mulcock:
Perfect.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s what they’d do, and…

Matt Mulcock:
It’s like layaway.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, exactly, and those are the first New Year’s resolutions, and then, if they kept their word, their gods would bestow a favor on them. And if not, then they would probably all die, so…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. [chuckle] They’d be struck down.

Ryan Isaac:
If they didn’t return… So, like, return your stuff, folks. That, you know… That’s what the Babylonians did.

Matt Mulcock:
If you have resolutions to return your stuff, then you’re on the right track.

Ryan Isaac:
You’re doing what the ancients did, and they were on to something. So, that’s kinda… I was just… Side note, that’s where it began. But let’s dive into… Let’s dive into this whole goal-setting thing, and… Maybe just a little setup, kind of a framework. What I hope people get out of this is maybe some encouragement to just keep pushing. One thing… You’re gonna talk about this, Matt. One thing I think is tough about goal-setting is… And especially around the New Year’s Eve resolution goal-setting mentality, is it… It puts this box around… That goals begin and end with a calendar year, you know? Which is so silly. Like, think about anything meaningful you’ve ever done in your life that is still a part of your life that brings it… It’s something. Some kinda joy or value or something, right? Very few of the… I don’t know, any of those things that would have actually just begun in a calendar year and then just ended, and you’re like, “Okay, now this is… ” It’s kind of like, if it’s meaningful, if it’s really impactful, then it’s hard to set an exact date on when it’s… I dunno, when it’s finished or when it’s completed. Think of any healthy habits you have, or things you enjoy in life. They don’t just… I guess they begin… Some of the processes begin somewhere, but they don’t just… You know, like…

Matt Mulcock:
It doesn’t coincide with the calendar, usually. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it just… It doesn’t, so, I struggle with that. I struggle… Like, writing something down and be like, “This year, I will do this thing, and here’s the number, and then it’s over, and it’s done,” you know? But anyway, let’s get into a little bit of… You had some interesting stats, first of all, about resolutions and success rates. Why don’t you just walk us through a little bit of that, ’cause I think those are kind of fascinating stats, if you will.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, and I know… I think we hit this beginning of… Actually, last year, we did similar, but… So first thing I wanted to hit… I was doing some research and trying to figure out… This is no surprise, I don’t think it’ll come as a surprise to anybody. I was doing some research on what are the top resolutions or categories that people focus on when it comes to resolutions. I’m gonna guess that most people could pinpoint… Probably the top five, so I’m just gonna give the top five, ’cause there’s like… And this is from Statista.

Ryan Isaac:
Statista.

Matt Mulcock:
Statista? Statista? Statista. To-may-to, to-mah-to.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, I like… I like Statista.

Matt Mulcock:
Let’s go with Statista.

Ryan Isaac:
I like that.

Matt Mulcock:
It’s maybe Statista, but again, who cares?

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, alright.

Matt Mulcock:
So, from what I gather, this is a website that… They focus on gathering stats, and so, here it is. So they did 1500 respondents, this was… This is a little old. They haven’t released their data for this new year, ’cause we’re five days into it, but…

Ryan Isaac:
I bet it’s the same.

Matt Mulcock:
So… Yeah, it’s probably… It probably is the same, so, do you wanna make any guesses, or did you already see these?

Ryan Isaac:
I haven’t… I didn’t open it yet, because I didn’t wanna do this, but I mean… Guaranteed number one is health and fitness, and number two is probably money.

Matt Mulcock:
Yep, yep, so… The top five, so number one, improving fitness. Exercise more, or some combination of exercise more, improving fitness. Number two, which I kinda think this fall… Probably the same, is losing weight.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, they have ’em separated.

Matt Mulcock:
They have ’em separated.

Ryan Isaac:
I mean, clearly, there were so many responses from these categories and such that were so specific that they categorized them.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. And they gave ’em a menu.

Ryan Isaac:
They probably gave ’em a little… Statista.

Matt Mulcock:
They gave ’em a menu, I can guess, at Statista. And so…

Ryan Isaac:
Statista, it sounds like a great little bistro.

Matt Mulcock:
It really does. Number three was saving more money.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay. Number three, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Number four, improving my diet. And then number five was pursuing a career ambition. So, something to do with fitness or money in all five of ’em.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah that… I mean, not surprising at all. I mean, those are… Our health and our wealth are kinda the things that just drive so much of our lives, you know, the opportunities we have, and the enjoyment we get, and the fulfillment of things, and… It’s not surprising. Okay, so what… Success statistics, do we have those too?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes, we do. So, same year…

Ryan Isaac:
Or like… Or like, how… Like, percentage of people accomplishing these things, right?

Matt Mulcock:
Yes, yep. So… After one week of setting the resolution, whatever that was, 75% were still… Were self-reporting that they were successfully keeping it.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
After two weeks, the number dropped to 71%. After one month, it dropped to 64%.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
And then, it says about six months later…

Ryan Isaac:
So a full third of goal-setters are done with their goals within a month.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Yup.

Ryan Isaac:
Heavy, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
And so, here’s some interesting things. This is… Then, this goes on to reference a few other studies. This one from 2016, so it’s a little bit old, but… Which is crazy to say that 2016 is older, but I mean, we’re talking now six years. So, 41% of Americans in 2016 set a New Year’s resolution, and by the end of the year, only 9% said they felt successful in keeping that resolution.

Ryan Isaac:
Does it say why? Why… Okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yes. So, it goes on to explain some of the reasons for failure. I thought this was actually really interesting. So 35% of the participants who failed the resolution, or claim that they failed, said they set unrealistic goals.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Another 33% said they didn’t track their progress. This is my favorite one, 23% said they forgot about it. It’s just… They’re like, “I don’t know.”

Ryan Isaac:
Wait, wait, wait.

Matt Mulcock:
“I set… I wanted to stop drinking, I think, or was it just cut down on drinking? I don’t remember.”

Ryan Isaac:
A quarter of the people, a quarter of the people said they just forgot.

Matt Mulcock:
They just forgot. And then…

Ryan Isaac:
Which says a lot about what is front and center in our brains, you know. We get so conditioned in this time of year to do things out of like “This is what people do, and you gotta… ” You know. But then, if it’s not really a priority, you don’t really care. You forget about it. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
It sounds good. I think a lot of times…

Ryan Isaac:
It sounds good.

Matt Mulcock:
It sounds good, it’s more of a vanity metric, and…

Ryan Isaac:
I totally get that, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
I’ll reference one that I had last year…

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, great, okay.

Matt Mulcock:
That I… That falls… I’m gonna… I’m gonna out myself on this.

Ryan Isaac:
I like it.

Matt Mulcock:
But then, it said… The last piece of this said about one in 10 people, so 10% fail… Said they failed because they set too many resolutions. These are the overachievers.

Ryan Isaac:
That used to be me, no joke. I would sketch out like six different areas of my life, and then I’d set like five goals per area. I’d end up with…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, and then it’s overwhelming.

Ryan Isaac:
A few dozen goals, and it was insane, and… I mean, I don’t remember them or didn’t achieve them, probably. [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
Or arbitrary things, so…

Matt Mulcock:
Or you forgot about ’em.

Ryan Isaac:
Or I forgot ’em, that’s totally… That’s totally possible. So, what is this… Like, what have you gathered from this? What does this tell… Like, what is the problem with goals, then? Because clearly… Like, the data, and a lot of really good studies show that people who set goals typically achieve more things that they wanted to achieve. It’s pretty strongly correlated with happiness and success. So… But clearly, there’s a problem, right? We’re not… I mean, we’re on a financial podcast, obviously, so… Everyone… And it’s the top goals. So everyone wants to save more, spend less, invest better, improve their income, their profitability, whatever, but it’s like, you know… From a goal-setting standpoint, it’s not happening. What is the problem with goals?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. That… So my thinking on this has evolved a lot. You mentioned earlier… You know, you wish you were kinda more of a goal-setter, you know a lotta successful people that are goal-setters… Me too. I… The first thing that I’ll say on this is, I know… You know, in my own life, people that are really… Like, strict goal-setters, or at least had been at one point in their life, and they’ve achieved a lot, they’ve reached their goals, they’ve been really successful. To me… And I used to be like that, in the sense of setting goals. I was more in the camp of setting resolutions and then failing miserably. And so, we can talk more. So I’ll just give you one quick example. I was mentioning earlier, like, these vanity metrics. I think one of the reasons why goals fail is people fail to ask the reason why behind the goal.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, “Why am I even setting it?” Oh yeah, totally.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, it’s like, “Why am I even setting it?” So I’ll give an example, I’ll out myself here.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, let’s do it.

Matt Mulcock:
So, last year, starting in 2021, my goal, my resolution was “I’m gonna read 50 books.” Why 50 books?

Ryan Isaac:
Why? Yeah, why 50?

Matt Mulcock:
I don’t know. It sounded good. It was a vanity metric. Needless to say, I failed miserably. There was no reason behind it, and there was no “why” behind it. It was just “Oh, that sounds good.”

Ryan Isaac:
It sounds cool.

Matt Mulcock:
Sounds cool.

Ryan Isaac:
If you told people that later, it would be even cooler.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. And it failed miserably, so… And again, we’ll kind of talk more about… I think what I should have done, and now, what my focus is now moving into this year… Kind of along those same lines, but… What changed my view on this is… And we just talked about this before we jumped on, is I read the book Atomic Habits. And we’ve referenced this before. I think James Clear is one of the greatest modern-day thinkers in the world, and if you have not read his book, it is fantastic, but… So a lot of the ideas we’re gonna talk about here come from that book. But that’s what changed my view. So… I don’t know if you wanna jump into this, of like…

Ryan Isaac:
Let’s do that, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
The limitations of goals.

Ryan Isaac:
I do, I like that. I like this idea, because again… I got sidetracked, as I do. I was saying earlier, I want people to take from this something that they can actually do to improve their financial position this year. And maybe we can kind of hit on that at the end, but we have to first address what’s the phenomenon, and what’s going on with it, and why does it fail us, or why do we fail our goals all the time, so yeah, let’s hit that for sure.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, for sure, so… Yeah, so the problem with goals… So, I listed out a few different things here. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are things that we see, obviously, in our work… We see in our own lives, and then I, again, pulled some ideas from… From the book Atomic Habits, so, the first item I put here is that goals box you in. So… And what I mean by that… I’d love to get your thoughts on this, Ryan, but what I… Kind of what I… Kind of… The sub-point to that is they… I think they tend to create this kind of “I’ll be happy when” syndrome, this kind of zero-sum, win-lose mentality. It’s very much like “I either achieve my goal or I’m a failure,” right? So, again, coming back to my example of 50 books last year, it’s… You know, because that’s so outcome-focused, it’s like if I read 49 books, I’m a failure in my own mind, right? I created this very much win-lose, and then I attached my… Maybe “happiness” isn’t the right word, but my level of… My idea of success to this outcome. And so, they kinda box you into this narrow view of what’s success and what’s happiness.

Ryan Isaac:
But sometimes, I feel like that boxed-in mentality makes us feel like we constantly have to do different things instead of… I mean, keep doing some of the same stuff.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Isaac:
That’s a very… And you should feel successful and feel rewarded for doing some of the same behavioral stuff that you were doing before that brings you the value you’re looking for. Just because it’s not new doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of a goal or your attention in like “Hey, I’m accomplishing this thing,” you know? So I totally get that boxed-in thing, that’s how I view it.

Matt Mulcock:
So another example I thought of that’s specific to our clients and to our audience is, again, this kind of goal’s boxing you in. I thought of like, “Okay, what if a practice set a goal?” And we’ve had this, and I’m not saying this is totally unworthy, but I just thought… I was thinking about this as we were talking about this… Or going… Talking about doing this topic. I think of a practice that’s… Let’s say they hit seven figures, they hit a million dollars for the first time in 2020 or 2021, right? And they think, “Okay, this year, my goal is $1.5 million in collections.” And that’s when I’m drawing the line of success. Well, by the end of 2022, let’s say you hit $1.3 million. Is that not success… Like, are you a failure? And I think that’s one of the problems with having… I’d say an incomplete focus on outcome-driven goals is, it leads to this “I made progress, and I still feel like a failure.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, it wasn’t enough. Now, some… Now, some might argue, “Well, if you didn’t set the high goal in the first place, you wouldn’t have even hit $1.3, right?” Maybe there’s some… Maybe that’s valid, too.

Matt Mulcock:
Possibly.

Ryan Isaac:
But maybe… Maybe it’s like this psychological… You’re just getting beaten down by yourself psychologically that you don’t need to be. Yeah, because you’re so focused on that outcome specifically. Yeah, I think that’s… That makes a lotta sense. Yeah, totally.

Matt Mulcock:
I would say… Again, this just comes down to shifting your focus, right? To me, the outcome is the result of focusing on the inputs, right? The outputs are focusing on the inputs, and someone might be like, “Well, okay, what’s the difference?” I’ll give you an example in our business, like, we’re… We think about and talk about all the time, internally, with our clients and audience, like, “How do we just add… ” Like, we could sit here and say “We’re gonna focus on profitability numbers and client count,” completely just focused on client count, and how much can we add in assets, and all these different metrics, these outputs, right? Or, we could say “Our focus is becoming the best advisor around client experience,” adding… Like, how do we give our clients the best possible experience, and then the results of the results, right? And you wanna see that progress, obviously, but I think it’s… What are you focused on to get those results?

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah. You had another thing on your list I thought was really cool to think about, I’ve never thought about this way, is that goals can… They tend to address the symptoms and not the real cause of the problem. What did you… I’ve never thought about it like that. What do you… What did you have in mind with that, ’cause I think that’s a really good way to think about it.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, so an example I was thinking about, like, again, how could we make this more dental-specific, was… Like, think of… And I’ve had this, or I’ve had clients that talk about this very thing, that staff leaves their office messy every day, or at the end of every week, that their office is so messy.

Ryan Isaac:
So then the goal would be? [chuckle]

Matt Mulcock:
And so… The goal would be like “Let’s clean the office every week or everyday.”

Ryan Isaac:
We clean. Yeah, we clean, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, and again… And you could set that as a goal and say “Every Friday, we’re gonna have the goal of having the office clean to this standard every single week.” Well, okay, you just solved the…

Ryan Isaac:
Symptom, that…

Matt Mulcock:
Or you fixed the symptom, you put a band-aid over it, but what’s the real cause of that? I would argue that the real cause of that is a cultural issue of your staff not taking pride in their work and in their work space and in the practice. So how do we solve that? And I think if you just focus on these little goals… Again, I’m not saying that they’re completely unfounded, or they’re unworthy goals. I’m just saying that it tends to be incomplete… An incomplete view of what I think you’re trying to accomplish long-term.

Ryan Isaac:
Here’s what’s tough about that is, sometimes, the real problems, they don’t have a set endpoint, right? Like “I’m going to become a healthy person, or a person who is active.” That doesn’t really end on December 31st and then start with something new on January 1st, you know? That becomes a thing that you are. It’s part of your life, and… So, it becomes more arbitrary, which is… You know, it’s kinda hard to track that stuff, but I see what you’re saying, and I just like the… If anything, just to keep in mind that are we setting goals that are addressing symptoms of the real problem, or the real issue that we want to really tackle? And to just think through that, and I think that’s just a good reminder to think through that as we’re setting goals. You had something on here about “Goals lead to a whiplash effect.”

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, and I think this coincides with what you were just saying, and this idea of you’re focusing on the symptom, not the cause, and I think that’s what creates this whiplash effect. What I mean by that is, like, reversion to your original self after you achieve some arbitrary goal. So, a really, I think, easy example here is, you know, and I’ve never set this goal, and I never will, ’cause… Just… Running is terrible. But like, I wanna run a marathon. I think that’s a really… Like, it’s a goal we hear all the… You know, I hear all the time from friends, family…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s lofty.

Matt Mulcock:
I’m running a marathon this year. Yeah, which… That’s not an unworthy goal, but what I have seen so many times… I was actually just talking to my brother about this… Like, literally, I think yesterday or the day before. So he did a huge bike race called the LoToJa.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
If anyone… Anyone that’s local kind of to this area knows, you’re going… I think it’s like 220-mile bike race.

Ryan Isaac:
Real fast, we have quite a few clients who participate. I think we actually have a…

Matt Mulcock:
We have a couple… I think we have one that won it.

Ryan Isaac:
We have a client who won that sucker.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, shout out.

Ryan Isaac:
Shout out, SJ.

Matt Mulcock:
Dominating.

Ryan Isaac:
Dr. SJ. I’ll just say that much right now.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, so… And I know where his practice is, it’s relatively close to my house. So, my brother set a goal. He said, “I’m gonna do this by myself,” ’cause you can do it either in teams, or you can do it individually, and he set a goal last year that “I’m gonna do this by myself.” Again, 220 miles or something like that. So, a ridiculous bike race, very long, very physically demanding. He trained and trained and trained, got super healthy, lost all this weight doing this bike race. He completed it, and guess what’s happened since?

Ryan Isaac:
Gone back?

Matt Mulcock:
And I’m not exaggerating this, he’s gained 25 pounds. He whiplashed, he reverted back to… He’s like, “Oh, I achieved that goal.” And he’s like, “I don’t… ” And he even told me on the phone, he’s like, “I don’t even know what happened. I just… All of a sudden… ” Again, it was this reversion to bad habits, ’cause again, he was not… He was so focused on that outcome as opposed to saying “I’m gonna become a bike rider,” right? As… He’s saying “I’m gonna do this race.” And then he achieved it, he was super successful, he finished it, he achieved his goal. And then, that did nothing to change his long-term habits.

Ryan Isaac:
Matt, it’s time.

Matt Mulcock:
Time for what, Ryan?

Ryan Isaac:
It’s time to book a free consultation at dentistadvisor.com. Just click on the big Book Free Consultation button on the homepage and talk to one of our friendly advisors today.

Ryan Isaac:
There’s clear relations between goal-setting and achievement and happiness, and… And productivity and value and efficiency, so… This isn’t to say that goals don’t work and don’t set them, that’s not what we’re saying. Goals are not worthless. That’s… We just have to think about them differently. So, how do we do that, then? And then, I think maybe what would be cool is to end… We’re going long here, but I would like to end with a few maybe benchmarks that could be helpful for people to just put into their financial goals, or… Not even as a goal, but just some financial checkpoints to hit throughout this year and to keep going with as they move on, but… So, how are we supposed to think about this, then? Like, how can we… How do they help, and then, how can we make them be more successful for us?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, and this is where my thinking… As I mentioned earlier, this is where my thinking has evolved with… You know, going from someone who was setting these relatively arbitrary goals, like reading 50 books a year, to shifting my mindset and saying… And this is where I think… And again, like you said, goals are not worthless. We’re not claiming that at all.

Ryan Isaac:
Yeah, totally not, yeah.

Matt Mulcock:
And I know we’re talking to a very goal-oriented audience, let’s be honest, like…

Ryan Isaac:
Oh yeah, for sure.

Matt Mulcock:
Dentists are some of the most successful people in the country, in the world. And they’re… They are that way because they have the mindset of setting goals to achieve what they’ve achieved. So again, we’re not saying that that’s the case, but I think James Clear, again, I think he articulates this very… And paints this picture very well, which is shifting your mindset from being outcome-focused to more identity-focused. So, you know… Again, like I was saying, so as opposed to me saying “I’m gonna read 50 books this year,” it’s “I’m going to become a reader if I’m not already one, or I’m gonna improve on my reading,” right? Now again, that kinda maybe seems wishy-washy, but… The way he describes it, I think it’s perfect, is… You change your identity, that you kind of paint the picture of the person you want to become, and then every action you take is a vote for that person, right? It’s like, you kind of identify and build a system and a system of habits around that person. I think that’s where you avoid some of this whiplash effect of like “I’m gonna go run a marathon.” You still might run a marathon, that’s great. But I think you’re more likely to have long-term success around saying “I’m going to become a runner.” That might include running marathons, but it’s not… It doesn’t end with the marathon. It’s your lifelong identity you’re creating.

Ryan Isaac:
But I guess what I’m saying is, I remember the first time that I paddled out on a board and achieved the goal, like, I stood up and caught a wave and rode a wave, and… If it had ended there, I think that would’ve been kind of a bummer. But it was so much more of like “I want this to be my identity, in terms of what do I value, what do I do? Like, who am I, what am I? Where does my time go?”, ’cause that really tells us a lot about our identities. And… So I’m just saying I relate to that, this… What did he call it? What you’re becoming, or… It’s an identity goal, like “I am a blank.” And maybe you’re not, like, “I’m a runner,” and therefore, you set a marathon goal, but maybe you’re saying “I am an active person.” And maybe once you did the marathon, now you’re gonna be a climber, or a skier, or you’re just an active person, or I’m a person who spends time in the outdoors, ’cause I just… I think it’s beautiful, and it brings me a lot of joy, and so, you’re…

Ryan Isaac:
I love that feeling of an identity goal, and I like it for our clients who become “I’m a saver,” or “I’m a long-term investor,” and… What’s nice about that is… Or “I’m a successful business owner.” So then, it’s not about hitting 1.5 in collections. It’s not about getting half a million bucks in a bank account, or getting a 12% return, you know? It’s… Those are milestones along the way, but they evolve, because you are this thing that is going to continue, and it doesn’t end on December 31st and then start with something new and arbitrary again on January. So… Anyway, I just… I really like that. I think that… I don’t know how he put it, but something about it’s your identity, that it’s an identity-focused goal.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. So, the way I… When I wrote this out, I was thinking, like, the focus should be on building an identity as opposed to collecting outcomes, right? Like, the outcomes will come. But I do wanna just button this up, and I know you wanna hit some benchmarks to finish out, but I think this quote kind of sums this up perfectly. This is from James Clear. I’m a big fanboy, if you haven’t noticed. But the quote is, “When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”

Ryan Isaac:
Yes.

Matt Mulcock:
So, it’s exactly what you were saying is like… As a… Being a successful business owner, or practice owner, or a successful clinician, or a successful leader. Like, whatever that identity is you’re creating and every action you’re taking is a vote for that person. You can be happy and satisfied anytime you’re making progress towards that goal.

Ryan Isaac:
The system’s running.

Matt Mulcock:
The system’s running, as opposed to saying “I will only be happy… ” And you may not even articulate these words. You might not say “I’m only gonna be happy when I hit $1.5 million in collections,” but you’re thinking it. If that’s your focus… If that’s what you’re measuring and that’s what you’re targeting, you… Come on, let’s be honest. You’re gonna be sad, or you’re gonna have some mental anguish if you hit 1.4, versus saying “I’m falling in love with the process. I’m focusing on this process, and the outcomes will take care of themselves.”

Ryan Isaac:
I love… Man, so that line… The last part of that line is “You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.” That means… If your identity and outcome is “I am going to be a long-term investor,” that means that when markets go down, you’re not dissatisfied. I mean, you might feel a little pain, that’s okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. You might. You might be a little worried.

Ryan Isaac:
If you’re now an active outdoor person, and you have a bad half-marathon on a Saturday, it’s okay. Your process is running, you got another one scheduled next month, and if you catch some bad waves, and you fall on your head over and over again… Not like I know what I’m talking about, but I saw a guy do that.

Matt Mulcock:
Never, never. [laughter] A friend did that one time.

Ryan Isaac:
Asking for a friend. It’s okay, because the… I love this. The process is… The system is running, and you’re like, “You know what? This is a blip, and I’m gonna have a really good day, but I can’t… I can’t hang it all on the good days, and I can’t hang it all on the bad days, because the system is running, and I’m really satisfied.” And I love that idea for our clients and our listeners who are savers, because many of you think of a goal of being a saver, this outcome of being a saver, and you think, “There’s no money,” but we’re here to tell you that if there’s 50 bucks, they’re 50 bucks, okay? There’s 50 bucks, alright?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. There’s something.

Ryan Isaac:
It… That will grow. That 50 bucks will feel painful, and you’ll feel proud of it when you do it, but that 50 bucks will turn into $5 grand, and that’ll turn into $10 grand eventually one day, and… Those are just milestones, but you can be satisfied that the process is running in the meantime. So, markets go up and down, income fluctuates, you have good times and bad times in the practice, but you’re becoming these things, and the systems are running. These are the process outcomes, the process goals. And they go on for years and years, and it’s okay… This is why I think it’s okay for the turn of the calendar to happen, and then you’re like, “You know what? My goal is kind of the same from last year.” It might have a little bit different emphasis. Last year was insurance plans, this year is marketing. But… You know, the process is running. I just think that’s so cool. You’re satisfied… What does it say, again? You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.

Matt Mulcock:
Is running. Yeah.

Ryan Isaac:
That is so cool, and… We can… Here’s… I’ll just end with a reference to another podcast we’ve already done. As… Just to throw out some benchmarks, because… People listening here are all along the spectrum. For some people, we’re just coming out of school, and we’re going, “Geez, how do I get enough money in the bank that… In a checking account, so the bank will lend me some money to buy a practice?” On the other end of the spectrum, there are people listening who are literally making millions of dollars, and they’re going, “How do I get to that hobby I’ve always wanted to get to?”, or “How do I back out and coach my daughter’s soccer team? I want some time back,” and everything in between. So, there are some financial benchmarks that can help you know that you’re moving in a… Because there is a linear path in financial planning that makes sense, and sometimes, it repeats itself, you go back to the beginning, or go back to a previous step, and then keep going, but this linear path of like, “What should you be working on at different parts of your career, in terms of where money goes?”, and this can help you build that process and that system of becoming a saver, a successful investor, a successful business operator.

Ryan Isaac:
Just go to episode 280, it’s called the Laws of Liquidity. And I think it kind of really coincides with this idea of knowing where should I be heading in practical terms, ’cause we’ve talked about… Really high-level, about goals here, but in practical terms, what are benchmarks that I can be hitting throughout the year? But just keep in mind, when you hit the benchmark of two to three months in practice liquidity, or you hit the benchmark of a 30-total term, and your liquidity is off the charts, like, that’s still just a benchmark, and there’s more to do, because it’s a process, that’s just a little piece of the process. So, check that out, episode 280, we don’t have to go into all the details of it, but I think that’ll give you… Everyone listening a linear path for how to… Listen to it, and you’ll find your place in that, and that will help you set some financial goals to becoming what you wanna be, which is a happy person that’s running a good business, enjoying a career of dentistry, making money, saving money, preparing for the future, you can become those things, and… Anyway, very cool, Matt. Thanks for going through all this today. Do you… Do you wanna share any goals? Do you have any… Like, do you have any this year? I mean, kind of on this team? Maybe you don’t at all. Do you… Anything you wanna throw out?

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah. Yeah, so, I do. I have… Yeah, I do have one, and I’ll just put myself out there. So, I’ve had a goal of… Now I’m saying this, so I’m gonna have to stick to it. I’ve had a goal of writing more for a long time, and so, I set a goal… Here it goes, I set a goal last year of like, “I’m gonna write X amount of articles or X amount of blog posts for the website in 2021,” and again, I failed miserably, but now, I’m really trying to shift my mindset of “I’m going to become a writer, and I’m going to build a system around how I become a writer, or how I vote every action to become that person,” so that’s my focus this year. I mean, I’ve got health focuses, and lifting goals, and all that kinda stuff that’s…

Ryan Isaac:
700-pound back squat?

Matt Mulcock:
No, we will not go into that, but my biggest focus right now is writing, and I’ll be honest, it’s scary.

Ryan Isaac:
Oh yeah, totally. We look forward to hearing… Reading from… Something from you soon? Do we… Do we have a… Do we have a date? Anything’s gonna come out anytime soon, [0:35:19.8] ____, it’s okay.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, I mean, it’s in the works. It’s in the works right now. I’m working on some stuff to get a regular…

Ryan Isaac:
Schedule.

Matt Mulcock:
Post come in…

Ryan Isaac:
It’s hard.

Matt Mulcock:
A regular schedule of writing… Coming out, so…

Ryan Isaac:
Writing is so hard.

Matt Mulcock:
I gotta give a shout out to Jake Elm. If you have not listened to Money… Or sorry, read, if you have not read his newsletter Money Talks, he’s one of our esteemed colleagues and financial advisors. He’s been one of my big inspirations for this. He is killer, he does a weekly post, he’s great.

Ryan Isaac:
It’s on our… It’s on our… I was gonna say it’s on our Facebook. If you… If you…

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, check him out.

Ryan Isaac:
Google “Jake Elm Money Talks”, it’s on Substack, which is a blog platform. And he writes about some really cool simple concepts that are awesome all the time, yeah, so he’s doing a good job.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, he’s great.

Ryan Isaac:
Maybe… Maybe he’ll inspire us to write a little bit this year, Matt.

Matt Mulcock:
Yeah, he is. He’s inspiring me, so…

Ryan Isaac:
I would love to hear about your goals this year, things you wanna keep doing, or do for the first time, things you wanna become, we’ll go and post that. I’ll do that right now, as soon as we’re done recording, in the Facebook or… Love to hear it, and when you hear this podcast episode, go find that thread, jump in there, and… Let’s do it, but thank you for listening. I can say, as a company, from the very first days of Big Hoss Reese Harper starting this, one of the biggest driving goals that’s shaped everyone we’ve hired, all of our culture, all of our processes, the things we spend our money and our time on, and all our thinking power is to be good teachers of financial principles. We wanted to be teachers before anything, and teachers in a way that would make people not feel dumb, and make people wanna take action, and make people wanna get involved and make some improvements and make changes, and… Without people willing to listen to our teaching, it wouldn’t really matter.

Ryan Isaac:
So, thank you for being here, and thanks… If you’re joining us for the first time, thank you, and if it’s a long time, thank you, thank you. If you have any questions for us, go to the Facebook group, so Dentist Advisors Discussion Group on Facebook, post a question, we will post an answer and probably use it on a podcast. And if you wanna chat with one of us directly, if that’s your goal this year, finally get the house in order, get some organization in your financial life, get a plan, know where you’re headed, get some accountability more than anything, than go to dentistadvisors.com, click on the Book Free Consultation link. Schedule a chat with us, we’d love to hear from you. Matt, welcome to the new year. New year, same name. And thanks for being here, Matty.

Matt Mulcock:
Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan Isaac:
Okay, we’ll catch you next time, everybody, on another episode of the Dentist Money Show. Take care, bye-bye.

Getting Organized