Teaching Technicians how to set goals in 2026
Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes
The New Year is here! 2025 is gone and it’s time to reevaluate.
It’s always a good time to reflect on what is happening in life and think about what is happening and needs to change.
The question for me as a leader, is how do we harness that natural time for reflection across an organization of 50 people?
Every week we do a training with all of our field technicians and managers. I had all techs and managers come with 3 goals in mind.
A measurable goal for their professional career.
A measurable goal for their personal life.
A habit to develop this year.
Before the meeting I set up sheets of paper with markers and crayons spread out. Each person drew out their goals in a “mural”. As you can imagine, a bunch of 30-50 year old blue collar men were not that thrilled with the task.
But having them draw it out does a few things.
Makes it memorable
Gives a tangible representation to refer back through the year
Is different than the traditional lecture style training
Afterwards we hung them all in the training room for all to see.
Here’s what it looked like:
A few goals that stuck out.
Get closer to God
Take the family on a cruise
$3,550,000 in individual revenue
60 water softeners sold
For those of you who are curious, yes I participated too. My goals were:
$13,500,000 in company revenue
Run a 40 mile ultra marathon
Shoot a bear(I’m a big time hunter)
Read at night instead of watch TV
I thought this would be a fun way to get everyone thinking about there personal goals for the year.
Share your goals for the year in the comments sections!
My Preferred Method for Setting Goals
Last year, I came across Jesse Itzler. He has a great framework for setting goals that I copied and it made for an excellent 2025!
He takes his goal setting method from a Japanese word: Misogi
From Psychology Today: “The Shinto ritual Misogi is translated into Western culture as an annual challenge, a tool for self-discovery. Once a year, do something so difficult there’s a fifty-fifty chance you might fail at it.”
Jesse Itzler challenges you to do 1 Misogi, regular adventures and awesome experiences, and one new habit each quarter. He sells a big calendar that you can hang in a place you work every day. At the beginning of the year you are intentional about the date of your Misogi and the experiences you have throughout the year. I didn’t buy his calendar but I bought a cheaper one on Amazon and it worked just as well. It cost me $7 and I hang it in my office so I can look at it every day.
What I love about this method is that you intentionally set aside times that cannot be filled by others. This is my time to do awesome things that I want to do. Here are some examples from 2025.
My Misogi. Run a marathon. This defined my year and forced me to train hard all year long. I learned I could push through pain and go farther than I ever thought possible. 10/10 recommend.
I intentionally planned cool experiences at the beginning of the year.
Snowmobiling through the wilderness of Island Park.
Archery elk hunting on the border of Idaho and Montana.
Backpacking trip to go fishing at remote lakes
Traveling across the country to Delaware with my family to spend time at the beach and with my wife’s grandparents.
Trade shows with my wife
My habits didn’t get worked on as much as I should have. I developed a good running habit but that’s about it. Definitely something to work on in 2026.
You’ll notice my goals for 2026 reflect this method.
Misogi: 40 mile ultramarathon
Experiences: Bear hunting, anniversary trip with my wife
Q1 Habit: Reading(I’ll post my book list later)
I know these don’t relate a ton to business, but I have a firm belief.
How you do one thing is how you do everything.
You can’t run a marathon without that grit and determination bleeding into your business and career.
You can’t patiently hunt an animal without that attention to detail bleeding into your work.
If you aim for nothing you’ll hit it every time. - Zig Ziglar
If you want to learn more about this method of goal setting, check out this video where I got my inspiration.