THE BENTO BLUEPRINT

I’ve never shared this with anyone, so I’m revealing this in case it’s helpful for others.

As 2024 comes to a close, I’ll be doing a year-end review of the year before setting my 2025 goals.

I use a framework called the Bento Blueprint that I created.

That’s right- 🍱. They have multiple sections, lots of flavors, and Bentos make me smile. I want to be smiling and thinking of my future while I set my hard growth plans.

In my Bento Blueprint, I map annual goals for four categories - Health, Wealth, Relationships, and Happiness.

For each category, I write one to three goals, the action steps to achieve those goals, and how I’ll measure success at the end of the year. I never set more than three goals for each, as focus leads to a much better chance of my making progress towards the goal.

💪  Health = my fitness, wellness, medical, nutrition-related goals

💰  Wealth = my work objectives, finances, investments, spending goals

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Relationships = building and maintaining strong connections with loved ones, friends, friends-to-be, other leaders, and mentors

😊  Happiness = things that add to the joy in life and feed my interests

Lastly, I’ll list out the habits that I need to start or stop. Habits form routines, which either contribute to growth or hold it back (I’m looking at you Tiktok doomscrolling)

At the end of December, I’ll do a year-end review. I’ll give myself a rating from 1 to 10 for each category, based on how close I got to my goals. I want to be seeing good incremental progress from year-to-year. This year, I know I’ve got high scores in some and lower in others.

Then I’ll set my goals for 2025.

There are different methods for goal-setting and review. I’ve been doing this for several years and this works for me.

I used to be much less intentional about goal planning- using my entrepreneurial wiring to obsess deeply over 1 or 2 things and neglecting the rest. So I built this process for myself so that I can create positive momentum in each of these 4 areas.

I’m happy to send you a Powerpoint template of the Bento Blueprint I use if you think it may be helpful for you. Just leave the comment “BENTO” and I’ll message you.