Leading Indicators Beat Lagging Outcomes

Summary

In this episode, Andy welcomes Coach Tony Weaver, author of Project Manage Your Life: Your Blueprint for Achieving Any Goal — One Step at a Time. After decades of leading complex IT, marketing, and transformation projects, Tony turned his project management skills inward and used them to lose over 100 pounds. That journey sparked a new mission: helping others apply the same proven methods to their own goals, whether it’s health, finances, career, or just finally following through on something important.

In this conversation, you’ll hear how to turn vague intentions into measurable, motivating goals. Tony shares how to break down big ambitions into doable milestones, track your progress without becoming a slave to the data, and stay consistent with joy instead of burnout. He unpacks what SMART goals actually look like in the real world and explains why the project mindset can transform not just what you achieve, but how you feel while doing it.

If you’re looking for practical ideas to move forward on goals that matter to you, at work or at home, this episode is for you!

Sound Bites

• “Project management absolutely changed my life.”
• “Life is agile.”
• “Every goal is a project. Project management is just applying structure to that goal.”
• “Your brain doesn’t care about your happiness. It cares about keeping you safe. That’s why it resists change.”
• “Once you build confidence in yourself, the goal you set becomes just a jumping-off point.”
• “Setting a goal is an act of hope. It says that tomorrow can be better than today.”
• “Track what you can control. Influence is important, but control drives change.”
• “Focus on the things you control. Keep an eye on the results, but don't obsess about them.”
• “The safest place to be is in your comfort zone, not trying.”
• “Some numbers matter. Some are interesting. Some aren't even interesting.”
• “Letting a goal die of loneliness? That's a recipe for regret.”

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:36 Start of Interview
• 02:00 How Project Management Led to a New Mission
• 06:14 Mentorship, Coaching, and Project Management in Life
• 07:40 What Project Management Looks Like in Everyday Terms
• 11:20 Why Good Intentions Don’t Lead to Change
• 13:10 Why Most People Don’t Set Goals
• 15:24 Setting a Goal as an Act of Hope
• 18:00 Common Goal-Setting Mistakes and How to Fix Them
• 21:30 Building a Plan that Actually Works for You
• 23:50 Why You Should Plan Celebration, Not Just Completion
• 24:38 How to Track Progress Without Obsessing Over Data
• 29:20 The Danger of Focusing Too Much on Lagging Indicators
• 30:45 Two Client Success Stories
• 34:34 Where to Learn More About Coach Tony
• 35:28 End of Interview
• 36:03 Andy Comments After the Interview
• 39:05 Outtakes

Learn More

You can learn more about Tony and his work at OperationMelt.com.

For more learning on this topic, check out:

• Episode 376 with Nick Sonnenberg. It’s an episode about how to stop drowning in work, and though the focus is more about life on the job, there are so many ideas from Nick that can help you in your personal life.
• Episode 81 with Ben Snyder, where we talk about how everything is a project. We’re always working on projects, and there are so many ways to apply our project knowledge to other areas of life.
• Episode 17 with John Wittry. It’s perhaps more of a time management episode, but it’s about taking back your life, and there’s a theme for how project management ideas can apply.

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Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!

Talent Triangle: Ways of Working

Topics: Goal Setting, Project Management, Productivity, SMART Goals, Personal Growth, Behavior Change, Tracking Progress, Milestones, Motivation, Self-Leadership, Coaching, Resilience

The following music was used for this episode:

Music: Brooklyn Nights by Tim Kulig License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Music: Energetic Drive Indie Rock by WinnieTheMoog License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license