" This is the year you finally close the gap between reality and your dreams.

We all want to live a life that matters. We all want to reach our full potential. But too often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the day-to-day. Our biggest goals get pushed to the back burner--and then, more often than not, they get abandoned and forgotten.

It doesn't have to be that way!

In this new, fully revised and updated edition of Your Best Year Ever, Michael Hyatt shares a powerful, proven, research-driven system for setting and achieving your goals. You'll learn how to design your best year ever by discovering:

● what's holding you back right now
● how to overcome your past setbacks
● the seven attributes of effective goals
● how to quit-proof your goals
● the role of habits in personal achievement
● what to do when you feel stuck
● and much more

If you're tired of not seeing progress in your personal, intellectual, business, relational, or financial goals, it's time for you to have your best year ever!"

...
"From the Back Cover
"When it comes to achieving big goals, a lot of the conventional wisdom is flat wrong. In Your Best Year Ever, Michael Hyatt lays out a simple program, backed by the best modern research, to reach your dreams!"--Tony Robbins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Unshakeable

"Generous goals work (if you write them down), and powerful books work (if you read them). Michael Hyatt has created a fun, fast way to find your dreams and then turn them into reality."--Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

"Your Best Year Ever is full of compelling, real-life stories of average people who have achieved extraordinary results. Please take my advice and buy this book only if you want to be able to look back in twelve months and say, 'Now, that was my best year ever!'"--John C. Maxwell, author, speaker, and leadership expert

"The best part of this book is that before he wrote it, Michael spent decades living it. This is Michael Jordan writing a book about basketball."--Jon Acuff, New York Times bestselling author of Soundtracks and All It Takes Is a Goal

"Let's be honest . . . resolutions just don't work. That's why a lot of gyms are empty and even more budgets are blown by Valentine's Day every year. If you really want things to change over the next twelve months, look at what Your Best Year Ever has to say--then do what it says."--Dave Ramsey, bestselling author, nationally syndicated radio show host

"Michael has been a trusted friend and guide of mine for a long time. This is a playbook for success in the relationships, endeavors, and beautiful ambitions you have for yourself and the ones you love the most."--Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author of Love Does"

Quoted material is from the book's Amazon sales page. Most of my review is in the "Further Comments" section at the bottom.

People who are new to personal development or are new to setting SMART goals or want a refresher.

The author's personal stories.

Magically have all my bookmarks transcribed into notes.

Mildly interested to engaged.

"About the author

Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of Full Focus. He has scaled multiple companies over the years, including a $250M publishing company with 700+ employees and his own business coaching company that has grown over 60% year over year for the past four years. Under his leadership, Michael Hyatt & Company has been featured in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America for three years in a row. He’s also the author of several New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling books, including Platform, Living Forward, Your Best Year Ever, Free to Focus, and The Vision-Driven Leader. He enjoys The Double Win with his wife of 40-plus years, five daughters, and ten grandchildren.

Website: fullfocus.co

Twitter & Instagram: @michaelhyatt

Facebook: facebook.com/michaelHyatt"

See further comments.

If you're already an expert or have taught classes in goal setting, there might not be anything new for you here.

I enjoyed reading this book, even though I've taught classes on goal setting and not much was new to me. It's a good basic goal setting / annual planning how to guide that would be great for people not already familiar with the core concepts, or a refresher for those who are.

He included a lot of stories that I'd heard elsewhere, so I liked his personal stories more, because they were new to me.

I voice texted myself a few notes when I was reading the book. I put it in quotes because I'm quoting my notes. I'm not sure if I paraphrased what he said or if it's right from the book. Here's the cleaned up version of them, in case you're interested.

"Chapter 1 He cited some research that said there are really only two mindsets - growth and fixed.

Chapter 2 He said there are really only two kinds of thinking, abundance and scarcity.

Beliefs and actions are in a cycle that reinforce each other, so the actions you take affect your beliefs, and your beliefs affect your actions.

There are a million thoughts going around in our heads, but only we get to choose what we believe.

Visit his bestyearever.com/selfcoacher

He recommends setting only eight goals per year and two to three major milestones per quarter."

I knew about growth and fixed mindset, but I hang out at a site where the founder is always throwing out mindset this and mindset that (role model mindset, growth mindset, abundance mindset, intention mindset, happiness mindset, servant mindset etc.), so it was nice to be reminded about the core two. I think it's a lot easier to just keep in mind that one wants a growth mindset than to have to remember someone's 10+ different mindsets (apparently I could only remember six at this moment myself, but there are more).

I knew about the belief / action cycle, but I liked how he put it.

I did visit his self coacher site. It was interesting but different than I expected. It was more about getting to the stories behind behind our beliefs than day to day self coaching (so a sliver of what I consider coaching to be).

The reminder that we get to choose what we believe and not all of our thoughts are facts was something I guess I needed at that moment. I sure wish I knew that as a teenager.

His five step method boils down to this:

1. Know what you want and why you want it (same as Tony Robbins' simpler three step method's first and second step - know your desired result and why, and Brendon Burchard's step one which is get clarity).

2. Believe it's possible. (similar to Brendon Burchard's confidence step... Brendon is younger so I don't know who borrowed from who... but I knew about Brendon first so his seem like they came first to me).

3. Define what success looks like using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. He adds ER to make them "SMARTER" goals, with the E being exciting (that is good to add... if you aren't excited about it, you're less likely to follow through)... I don't remember what the R was for though.

4. Make a plan of action.

5. Make it happen (similar to Tony Robbins' third step - take massive action).

There were several instances in the book when I thought things like, "I think I heard Tony Robbins say that exact same thing." Like with Brendon Burchard, I think Michael Hyatt is older than Tony Robbins, but in Tony's case, I'm pretty sure the information came from Tony first.

I love Tony Robbins. Basically, this book reminded me to get back to listening to the old Tony Robbins stuff I have access to. It's nice to hear new voices, but his tends to be the most powerfully motivating for me personally.

And, in case you want it all together, Tony Robbins' three step method in a nutshell is called RPM - results, purpose, massive action. One Christmas I asked for his planner and received it as a gift... the whole system is actually kind of complicated and was a fail for me. But as a three step thing to generally keep in mind (what you do want, why do you want it, take action on it now), it has stuck with me and I find it to be beneficial. I might take this paragraph out of this review or just copy and paste it into a blog post so I can refer others to it in the future.

Back to the book, here is some interesting information from the book's sales page. I thought it was an older book, but it was only two years old, surprisingly.

"Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baker Books; Revised and Updated edition (November 14, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1540902692
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1540902696
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #64,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#338 in Personal Finance (Books)
#376 in Leadership & Motivation
#540 in Success Self-Help"


Considering that those are very broad categories, I think it's doing pretty well on the best seller list.

I'm writing this review in the early afternoon of May 9, 2025. As of the time I pulled up the book's page, it had 2,369 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4.6 stars, and 8,270 reviews on Goodreads, averaging 3.9 stars. There's a big difference in the star ratings between the two sites, as well as the number of reviews.

Overall, I did enjoy the book as a refresher, and the Christian in me appreciated that he is coming from a Christian worldview, but I have read better books / attended more interesting seminars on goal setting.

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Created May 09, 2025 at 1:40pm • Submit your own review...