Set goals take charge!

Introduction

Do you sometimes find it difficult to create a clear vision for the things you want to achieve? This helpful article will look at the importance of setting goals and how they can help you to take charge of your life!

Setting goals are the key to success!

The skill of goal setting is central to feeling that you are making progress in your chosen areas. This article will look at a tried and tested method for setting goals. 

There are various aspects to setting goals, and some methods will be more effective than others. Having well defined goals can help you be clear about when they have been achieved. 

Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you have been really stressed and struggling to focus at work. It would be helpful to identify a goal regarding this to help you make changes. One option for a goal could be:

I want to be less stressed and focus better at work.

While this is definitely what you want to happen overall, you have not been specific enough. One of the things that happen when we are stressed is that it is difficult to think clearly. Therefore, we feel overwhelmed and can struggle to identify the specific changes we need to make to achieve our goals. 

Be SMART

Another option is to use the SMART method for goal setting. Using this method, you can break down your goals in a way that will allow you to see your progress and also help you to identify precisely what you need to do to achieve them.

Are SMART goals a good approach to goal setting?

Before considering whether using the SMART goal method is an excellent approach to goal setting, we need to consider the negative reflections you may come across regarding SMART goals. 

Some say that setting realistic goals leads to mediocrity. I would say that they would benefit from taking a step back and looking at things from a different perspective. Let’s think through a real-life example. Roger Federer is arguably one of the most successful tennis players that has ever lived. He has won all four major grand slam championships on all four surfaces.

He was born in 1981 in Switzerland and started playing as a young child. His first coach, Madeleine Bärlocher, said that he had the goal of being the world number one from early childhood. Take a look at this video about Roger Federer’s career for more information.

Many people at that time would have dismissed this as unrealistic nonsense. More likely, they might have put this down to the musings of a child and not paid any attention. 

We now know that he went on to achieve this, so we need to think about how this happened. Was it a fluke? 

If you watched the video above, you will already know the answer. It wasn’t a fluke. For the massive goal of being world number one to be realistic, many other things must be considered and worked towards first.

Let’s look at Federer’s journey

Federer worked hard on his craft from the beginning. While other children were focused on other things, he was training. This was a sacrificial act to help him to move towards his goal. 

He joined a national tennis centre in Switzerland at the age of 14. This required him to move away from his parents and stay with another family during the week. He spoke of feeling homesick at the time. Moving away from his family and everything familiar was necessary to work towards his big goal as a teenager.

I am sure that you can see from his actions that the desire to be world number one was becoming fractionally more realistic and achievable as the days went by. 

SMART goals work!

This is an excellent example of how SMART goals work. While you have an ultimate goal. You need to make small incremental changes on your journey to achieve it. 

Through sheer hard work and determination, Federer rose to 111th in the world and made his debut at his first Grand Slam tournament at the age of 17. While he did not win his first round, his ultimate goal of being number one in the world. Three years later, he won his first major title. In 2003 he won his first Grand Slam title at 21 and became number one in the world in 2004.

Small incremental steps

This is a crucial example of the importance of taking a gradual approach to your goals. It may mean that you need to adjust, visualise the ultimate goal, and then work backwards to identify what you will need to do to achieve the smaller goals that will help you move towards your target. Therefore, you can set really ambitious goals that are also achievable and realistic because you understand the steps and sacrifices you may need to make to achieve them.

Behaviour change 

When considering setting goals, Elliot Berkman identified the importance of paying attention to two aspects of behaviour change. He highlighted the importance of considering motivation along with the skill level required. 

You will see in the diagram below that moving from left to right focuses on routine to unfamiliar or novel tasks. While moving from the bottom to the top focuses on simple to complex activities.  

If the goal that you set starts in the top right-hand corner of the diagram below, a highly complex, unfamiliar task, it is necessary to assess whether you currently possess the level of knowledge needed to achieve that goal. 

Let’s look at another example. Suppose you have just joined a law firm as a Summer Associate. In that case, you may have the ultimate goal of becoming a Managing Partner of the firm, but setting your sights there straight away will likely lead to frustration. 

You may also notice a dip in motivation as the goal would appear out of reach. It would be more beneficial to identify what skills, knowledge, and abilities would be needed for the task, perhaps talking to colleagues, seeking out a mentor etc. 

It is also essential to assess where you are and whether you are achieving everything required in your current role. In the same way, while Federer had a fantastical ultimate goal, his journey to success was peppered with smaller wins that helped him to build skill, confidence, belief and motivation. In the next section, we will look at how to set SMART goals in more detail.

The SMART method

This approach has five elements. All goals should be:

•           Specific – this will allow you to identify precisely what you want to achieve. The more specific you can get, the more likely you will visualise precisely what you are aiming for. If you can imagine what your goal would look like, you are more likely to identify the steps you need to progress towards that goal.

•           Measurable – this will mean that you know when you have achieved it. You can measure a goal in many ways.

•           Achievable – this might mean breaking bigger goals down. Achievable goals feel reachable.

•           Realistic – this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t set your sights high. This is really about thinking carefully about what you need to do to reach an important goal. 

•           Time Limited – a time scale will help you have a vision and focus for what you are aiming for.

Break your goal down

Now let’s return to our earlier example of how you can use SMART goals to help you achieve success. Let’s break this all down by revisiting the previous plan of being less stressed and more focused.

The first thing to consider is whether the goal can be broken down into setting smaller mini-goals.

The ultimate goal is to be less stressed and better able to focus at work.

This could be broken down into two broad goals:

•           a reduction in stress

•           better able to focus

Let’s now take a look at the reduction in stress goal. Consider what life is like when you are not stressed. 

What is different? 

Do you feel relaxed when you are getting ready for work? 

Do you sleep better? 

Do you find you are less snappy with your family?

Are there things that you enjoy doing when you are less stressed?

This will help you really understand what is needed to reach the goal of reducing your stress. They are also specific questions that can help you set goals that are less abstract and therefore more achievable. This method of breaking down your goals will also help to remind you that while things are difficult at the moment, you have the tools needed to make changes. Small, incremental changes are perfect when goal setting. 

For the stress goal, answering the above questions can be so helpful.

Let’s take a closer look

What is different? When I am less stressed, I see my friends more and swim weekly.

Do you feel relaxed when you are getting ready for work? At the moment I feel really stressed when I am getting ready for work, but when I am not in a time of stress, I get up slightly earlier and sit for ten minutes to enjoy my morning coffee.

Do you sleep better? I feel so much more relaxed when I am not stressed so I definitely sleep better.

Do you find you are less snappy with your family? When I am not stressed, I can laugh and joke with my family and I don’t shut myself away.

Are there things that you enjoy doing when you are less stressed? I love baking and was doing this a lot more before. I take a break at work, even if this is only for ten minutes to walk around the block.

Answering these questions will help you to see that there are certain things you can do which will have a positive impact on your stress levels.

We can see from the example above that the following will help to reduce stress:

• Going swimming
• Seeing friends
• Sitting down for a morning coffee
• Spending time with family
• Baking
• Taking at least a ten minute break during the work day

The above exercise has helped us become more specific; the above things can be scheduled. They are also measurable, as you will be able to tick off when you have done them. They are achievable and realistic as they are things you have done before. The final step is making sure they are time-limited.

Put goals in order of difficulty

Think of your goals as a flight of stairs. No one in their right mind would attempt to climb stairs by starting on the first step and trying to stretch their legs all the way to the top in one go. Goals are similar. When you have made a list of goals, put them in order from the easiest to the most difficult.

• Sitting down for a morning coffee – 1
• Taking at least a ten minute break during the work day – 3
• Going swimming – 3
• Spending time with family – 4
• Baking – 5
• Seeing friends – 6

Staircase approach

Once you have done this, identify which would be short, medium or longer term goals. 

Short term – the next few weeks

Medium term – a month to six weeks

Longer term – three months or more

The only other thing to add now is how often you want to do something. To start with, perhaps sitting down for a morning coffee could be three times per week, and you can build on this once it becomes routine.

Repeat the steps

Remember, your ultimate goal is to feel less stressed and better focused at work. You have identified specific goals regarding stress, and it could be helpful to initially focus only on these goals. You could also go through the same process to have better focus at work.

In conclusion

Hopefully, you will find that this is a helpful way to approach setting goals. Your ultimate aims can be achieved by breaking down the goals so that you make small incremental changes. Below, you will find a button for a free editable worksheet that you can use again when setting goals. I have also included some links for books that you may want to read as part of your goal setting journey.

I have created a handy goal-setting chart that may be a helpful way for you to reflect on your goals and set some targets in a way that feels manageable. Please click here for a free download that may help with this process. If you would prefer to arrange a session to get some support with creating your goals, please feel free to get in touch.

I’d also like to leave you with a question what do you think about SMART goals? Feel free to comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Reference

Berkman E. T. (2018). The Neuroscience of Goals and Behavior Change. Consulting psychology journal, 70(1), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000094