Goal Setting 101 (The Basics)

If your bookshelves are anything like mine, they probably labour under the weight of a few dozen unopened books on the subject of goal-setting. There they sit, yearning to be of service, all jostling for supremacy (“Pick me! Pick me!”) There are books about:

• SMART goals (specific, measurable, adaptable, realistic, timed)
• Incremental goals, which break the big picture down into more manageable 'minis', 'mediums' and 'milestones'
• Goal-setting theories multifariously designed to develop skills, break habits or achieve dreams
• Various models suggesting you create goals for every single area of your life (social, sexual, financial, familial, emotional, intellectual, philanthropic, career-related, entrepreneurial, holistic and so on) in excruciating step-by-step detail

…and if you happen to manage a book store you can multiply those literary wannabes by a few thousand. With such an abundance of information, the novices among you may be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed - I know I did. So, I have done the hard work for you and put together the basics on goals setting.

Why Set Goals?

Do you want to live your life as the little kid in the back of the car whose destination is entirely determined by the adult driving? No, I didn’t think so. This is what living life without goals is like. But even once you get your hands on the wheel, it’s not enough just to know your ultimate destination (Noosa, losing 50kg) unless you also have a roadmap (or better still a GPS) and know which signposts to follow along the way.

Thus, goal setting is your roadmap for life. Write them down, figure out how you are going to get to your final destination, and this ensures you don’t miss them (or take the scenic route).

Be SMART and Don’t Play DUMB – How to Write Your Goals

The specific identity of the clever-clogs who came up with the mnemonic SMART acronym for goal-setting has sadly disappeared into the annals of time, but happily their legacy remains – Yay! There’s some disagreement about exactly what a couple of the letters stand for, but in order to benefit from setting and achieving your goals they essentially need to be:

• Specific - exercise three times a week for 20 minutes (not just: get in shape)
• Measurable - ask yourself how you will know you're making progress and how you'll monitor that progress (track my progress in the My Journey section of Springday)
• Attainable - run my first marathon (whereas riding to the moon on a camel is not)
• Relevant - it has meaning to YOU (not you mother!); it inspires you; YOU own it
• Timed - you have attatched a day, month and year to it (sometime = never!)

In his book Employee Enragement: Why People HATE Working For You, international speaker James Adonis warns against unwittingly self-sabotaging all your SMART goals by interspersing them with DUMB ones – I love it! Here’s what he suggests you avoid at all costs:

• Directed - goals which are given to you by someone else instead of being self-created
• Unaware - hidden expectations that others may have of you...learn to ASK!
• Many - focus on 3-5 top goals max: it's called goal setting, not scatter gunning!
• Boring - be colourful, challenging and visible...not bland and timid (Yawwwn...)

Get Yourself a Whip

Sadly not as kinky as it sounds, this comes from party-based politics where the ‘Whip’ is basically an enforcer. He or she ensures commitments are kept on all sides and will often offer incentives as well as dish out punishment. If you’re new to goal-setting and question your own ability to see things through, try appointing someone you trust to hold you accountable. This doesn’t have to be a professional you pay money to and might even be a fellow ‘goal-setting buddy’. All you really need is a friend or colleague tough enough to stand up to you and loving enough to have your best interests at heart.

One friend I know shed 20kg by appointing a Whip with the power to make her wear a luminous lime man-kini (a la Borat) in public on a busy city beach in the height of summer if she failed. Needless to say she didn’t fail! I can’t think of a better excuse to join our friendly and supportive online community, strike up conversation and buddy up with other Springday members to hold one another accountable.

If You Do Nothing Else, Do This ONE Thing…

Ok, so even if the famous-turned-infamous case studies from Yale (1953-73) and Harvard (1979-89) ‘proving’ that the 3% of students with written goals turned out to be several times more successful than the other 97% put together is an urban myth, experience still shows the power of putting pen to paper should never be underestimated.

Ask anyone who’s ever been serious about achieving a goal whether what he or she wrote down and focused on came to pass and you’ll be amazed at how many ordinary non-ivy league souls just like you & me have experienced this magic. It’s as if by sheer virtue of firing up all the neuro-pathways necessary for your mind to inspire your brain to use your nervous system to tell your muscles to move your arm to make your hand pick up a pen and translate your thought into physical words onto a page actually acts as a catalyst which sparks some universal energy to get on board and conspire in your favour.

Surely you wanna get you some of that?! (Put it this way, it can hardly hurt)

FYI - Your Goal Setting Tools are located in the "My Journey" section when you are logged in - go on become accountable.

Written by Oonagh O'Reilly, Springday Expert.

Back to Motivation

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