Goal setting made easy
Let me answer some common goal-setting questions and give you a quick rundown of strategies that worked for me over the past decade.
If you want to succeed in life, setting goals is essential. It doesn't matter if you're trying to improve yourself, advance your career, or just stay healthy - setting clear and measurable objectives will help you stay focused and take actionable steps towards achieving them.
The internet is full of advice on goal setting. It's like a pesky bug buzzing around your window on a hot summer day. You gotta let it out, or it'll keep circling around.
According to research, setting goals can be both good and bad. It can lead to positive results, but there are also some potential problems associated with it.
So, having specific goals can be a great way to boost motivation and stay focused. But, it can also be a problem if we ignore hidden or underlying issues or become too fixated on the wrong objectives. Sometimes, we need to give goals time to develop or even change over time.
Many people have trouble figuring out whether they should set goals. You could be one of them.
But here's the thing - it's about something other than whether to set goals or not; it's about how to do it in a way that doesn't take over your life and leaves no room for flexibility or fun.
Instead of worrying about that, you should ask yourself how to set goals that support and enrich your life.
First, let’s unpack some of the ‘pro’ goals-setting research and studies.
Goal setting has been shown to significantly impact an individual's ability to achieve their desired outcomes. According to a study by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, individuals who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to achieve them than those who didn't. Additionally, the study found that individuals who shared their goals with a friend were even more likely to achieve them, with a success rate of 78%.
Another study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that setting specific, challenging goals resulted in higher levels of performance than setting easy or general goals. This highlights the importance of setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.
Despite the evidence supporting the effectiveness of goal setting, for many of us, a number of questions still show up.
How do I make them effective? How do I stay motivated to achieve them past January? What do I do when obstacles and setbacks come up? And how do I even find time to work on my goals?
Let me answer these and give you a quick rundown of strategies that worked for me over the past decade.
The trick is in the goal itself.
You know the saying — ‘be careful what you wish for’ —also applies to goals.
I think so many of us fail on our goals as February rolls in because we bog ourselves down with too many goals. There are too many goals to work on, maintain, and thrive for. Yet, how often do you consider time when setting your goals?
One piece of advice worth considering comes from the HBR article, Don’t Bog Yourself Down with Too Many Goals:
Most of us understand the peril of adopting too many goals at once, which makes it unlikely we’ll be able to make meaningful progress on any of them. But, recognizing that we have to prioritize, how can we determine which goal is the right one to focus on?1
Author Dorie Clark, suggests creating a goal timeline.
If you're stuck between different ways to achieve your long-term goals that seem equally appealing, the next thing to do is put them in order based on when you should tackle them. Think about what you'll need to get done in the next three to five years to reach your goals (like learning new skills, making connections, getting assets, etc.) and make a list (of tasks).
Task one
Task two
Task three
Task four
Task five
Task six, etc.
The next step is to place these tasks into a timeline:
January to March — Task one
April — Task two
May to July — Task three
August to September — Task four
October — Task five
November to December — Task six, etc.
Clark also suggests identifying a “keystone” goal. Pick a goal that, if you manage to reach it, will make everything else easier or more achievable.
Speaking of time. Whenever you set a goal, do you realise you are giving something else up?
To say “yes” to the new, you must say “no” to some of the old.
Before jumping into a new goal, take a moment to think about your schedule, commitments, and current goals. Figure out what you can remove from your schedule to make space for new activities. Then, you can add activities to help you achieve your new goal. Getting rid of some of the tasks in your calendar that are no longer worth your time will help you move forward with your new goal faster.2
Goals are set in the future. With that comes delayed benefits.
Getting up for work is not much fun, but seeing the money coming in makes it worth it. The same applies to any action we do, right? Benefits.
What can be done?
Harness immediate benefits to increase your persistence3
Here’s how:
When you're trying to achieve your goals, make sure you choose an activity that you enjoy.
Also, try to give yourself some quick rewards as you work toward your long-term goals.
And don't forget to take a moment to think about the benefits you're getting right now while you're making progress toward your goals.
Setting a goal is the first step toward achieving the delayed outcomes you want. Yet, forgoing immediate outcomes or daily pleasures can undermine these goals. By making the experience more rewarding in the moment, you’ll have a better chance at success.4
💬 And that’s your weekly do. Take a good look at your goals this week. Are you trying to do too much at once? Check your schedule and see if you need to drop any activities to focus on your goals. Once you've figured out what's important, make a timeline for achieving your goals and let me know what you come up with.