How to set up goals and actually achieve them

Setting good goals is one of the most important things you can do, in order to improve your life, starting immediately. However, it is important to have a strategy, if you want to actually reach them.

Some theories speak about SMART  goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), others refer to variations around this, like SMARTER goals (including Evaluated and Reviewed to the list).

These methodologies are good ways to start designing your goals, but you must be careful not to fall into some of the pitfalls, which virtually nobody talks about.

Let’s analyze a bit each of these characteristics, in order to identify the “sticks you can put in your own wheels” (pitfalls). In this way you will have the necessary knowledge to avoid them.

Make your goals specific

The key questions you need to answer are what, why, where, who, which:

1. What – You should have a clear picture in your head of what you want to accomplish. This is very important. If you are not clear of what your goal is, you are like a ship with no bearings.
2. Why – You should make sure you know why this is important to you. This is a measure of your desire for this goal.
3. Where – You need to know where the goal is located.
4. Who – You must identify which people are stakeholders in this endeavor, and especially who is the decision maker. If you are not the one in charge of the decisions, it is a red flag for the attainment of your goal.
5. Which – Identify the resources you need in order to reach your goal.

From the above, you should be able to determine what you need to learn, upgrade, improve in order to get to your goal.

However, you should be careful not to let your fears and their symptoms affect your goals. The most often, it is the fear of criticism or the fear of poverty that will foil your goals. Make sure you evaluate yourself and identify if any of their symptoms are affecting you.

Make your goals measurable

In order to know when you have reached your goal, you need to have a way to measure your achievement. Some goals are easier to measure (for instance a specific amount of money in your bank account), others not so straight forward (creating a new product).

You should think about the criteria by which you will measure the attainment of your goal. Otherwise, how will you know when it is accomplished? Depending on your goal, there is always a way to measure its accomplishment. In order to better determine this, you should break it down to small incremental steps. In this way, you can track your progress and assess if you are on track to complete your goal in time of your deadline

Things to watch out for when aiming for measurable goals:

• not keeping track of your progress – it will likely affect your achievement capability
• not having small broken-down steps (split to as little as one day granularity) – your sense of progress will be affected. If your milestones are too widespread, it can demotivate you. Nail down the needed steps in as much detail as possible.

Make your goals achievable

You should keep your goals in the range of “possible”. If your set your goal to create the hyper-drive (spaceship engine capable of speed above light speed), you might hit the “is it actually physically possible?” barrier. Generally, an achievable goal is something you have some idea on how to accomplish it. Or even if you don’t know how to do it yet, you have some idea of the path you need to follow toward it.

Common pitfalls you should watch out for:

• the Comfort Zone – Make sure you set your goals a little outside of your “comfort zone”, so that you challenge yourself to achieve them. True progress can only be achieved by breaking your current boundaries. This is the only way to improve yourself, if this is what you want. Otherwise, you’ll be doing the same “comfortable” things over and over.
• thinking your goals are not achievable because of various fears you might have (criticism, poverty).

Set relevant goals for yourself

Make sure the goals you set matter to you. If this condition is not met, it will be hard for you to find motivation to pursue your goals and put in the needed effort. What you should be asking yourself is:

1. Is this worthwhile for me?
2. Is this goal in sync with my needs and my desires?
3. Am I the right person to reach this goal?
   

If you answer “Yes” to the questions above, then your goal is relevant for you.

Be careful about the common pitfalls associated with relevance:

• don’t procrastinate! If your goal is relevant, start planning and executing it.
• your fears might be holding you back and causing you to find excuses (like “it’s not worth the effort”). In order to avoid this, you should identify these and remove them from your mind. Check out the category Overcome fears, describing how to identify and how to handle them.

Bind your goals in time

Nothing gets done without a deadline. As such, any goal that does not have a time constraint is likely not going to be attained. Put an end time to your goal. This will put some pressure on you to get things done. After you have established the deadline, analyze the effort that is required and split it into small chunks, so that you will be able to monitor progress on a weekly and daily basis.

Here are some things to watch out for:

• don’t be too generous with the deadline – you will tend to postpone taking action
• don’t set the timeline too short – after all, there are only 24 hours in one day and you need to sleep through about a third of them.
• book your time for working on your goals. If you are pursuing multiple goals at a time, you will soon discover you will not have enough time to pursue too many at a time. Prioritize and limit yourself to only a few goals, so you can dedicate yourself to them.

Simple steps to stay focused on your goals

Here are a few steps to help you stay focused on any goal you have set:

1. Write out your goal. Writing it down will better define it in your mind.
2. Place the written goal somewhere you can see it, look at it every single day until it is completed.
3. Read it to yourself at least twice each day
4. Live your goal – experience it, see yourself having achieved it in your mind.
5. Share it with the people you know. Make sure you share your work-related goals with your work colleagues and your personal goals with your friends and family. This will help you internalize your mission to reach your goal.

Remember that in order for it to happen you need to truly believe in it yourself first. Have faith that you can reach your goal and it will materialize.