Goals are the foundation of how you get where you want to go in life! Since we just talked about creating our own personal life plans, today I want to go back and talk about setting goals. So, let’s look at what goals really are. People have been developing theories about goal setting since the 19th Century. Through the years, multiple different group studies have been completed giving us quite a bit of information to work with.
One way to look at goals is, “the object or aim of an action” (Latham & Locke, 2013). Meaning what you want to accomplish or, what the desired outcomes are. Using goals as tools and resources allows us to the ability to increase our productivity and improve performance. Latham and Locke, two key developers of goal setting theories found that “there is a positive linear relationship between a specific high goal and task performance” (Latham & Locke 2007). They said that years of research has found, that “those assigned hard goals performed better than did people assigned moderately difficult or easy goals” (Latham & Locke 1984).
If you set goals that are going to make you stretch, you will actually perform better! So, take those fears and those doubts you may be having and push them to the back of your mind. Set goals that are obtainable but, goals that are going to push you. If you fail, you can always readjust the goal or the timeframe. Setting a goal is not a perfect art.
If you just start small, it will help you instill the habit of goal setting. Admiral McRaven, who served as the Commander of the United States Special Operation Forces put it best, ”If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.” Simply starting off each day with your best foot forward knowing that you have already accomplished something is great way to start!
How Do I Set Goals that Will Lead to Success?
So, we know goals are steppingstones for accomplishing our visions but, how do we set goals? For this, I refer to the SMART system. It is commonly accredited to Peter Drucker who talked about SMART goals in his work on The Practice of Management. SMART is an acronym that frames the criteria to set a goal. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time. Think of SMART as an outline to design your goal. It will help you fill in the basics of how, why, when, where, etc.
SMART Criteria Breakdown
(Specific): Narrowing down each goal to is it focus on a single aspect. Example, I will walk one mile a day, for the next week.
(Measurable): The results can be gauged or quantified. Meaning you can see and track that you are accomplishing each task. Example, after walking each mile I will log it in a notebook.
(Attainable/Achievable): The goals are targeted to where you are at individually. The goal takes into consideration that not everyone is the same. So, walking a mile for you might be the answer but maybe not for your neighbor. Example, your neighbor is an Ironman athlete who trains 8-10 miles a day running. If you are just starting out, running 10 miles a day is not an achievable goal for you.
(Realistic/Relevant): The goals are practical; they are easy to implement in real life. You want to set a plan and be able to execute it! Example, walking one mile a day, for the next week. Then building off of that and walking two miles a day for the week after that. Those goals are relevant to each other and in fact, they build off each other!
(Time-Bound): The element of time makes the goal more focused. It also provides the needed time frame to set the parameters of your goal. Example is walking every day for a week. You have a 24-hour period to walk mile. Also, a seven-day period to walk one mile a day.
Just like building up from walking one mile a day to two miles, you can (and should) build off of your goals. You can plan out steps so that one day you can run ten miles a day. It is all about them baby steps!
How Setting Goals Can Motivate
Specific goals break down what exactly is necessary to complete it. Setting goals is a great way to make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success in the end. You can track your progress which can lead to a feeling of accomplishment even during the process itself.
One thing to keep in mind is that the motivation to complete these goals comes from inside you. It is an individual aspect that will be different for everyone. So, when you find a technique that helps keep you on track, use that to your advantage. It could be a vision board, an accountability partner, a life coach, or whatever else works.
Wanting to make a change, does not mean you are actually going to follow through. Just look at gyms at the start of each new year… overcrowded by the new year’s resolution goers. Well, until February that is….
One great example to look at, is how CrossFit uses the community and competition aspect to influence health and fitness. If you know someone who is a CrossFitter, they become emersed in the community of the gym. The culture sets a system of accountability to show up and put in the work with your fellow classmates. And the individual competition of wanting to do better than yesterday and maybe better that the person working out next to you.
The Importance of Writing Down your Goals and Revisiting Them
Dr. Gail Matthews is a professor in the Dominican who conducted a study on how exactly goal achievement was influenced by simply writing down goals, pairing goals with action plans and having a weekly update on goals to an accountability partner. The study showed that more than 70 percent of the participants who were using an accountability partner were able to successfully complete their goal. That was compared to the 35 percent rate of those who didn’t write down their goals and didn’t share them with anyone either (Matthews, 2015). So just by writing down your goals and sharing them with someone else increases your rate of success!
It is important to not only write down your goals, but also to revisit them. Some goals might be focused on a daily habit while others can run the course of a few months. If you focus on measuring how you are doing with each goal, it will help you know if you need to adjust what you are doing or adjust the parameters of the goal. That doesn’t mean that just because you don’t want to walk one day you should extend the time frame. In that case you just need to get off your but and make it happen. Sometimes bad things do happen. Say you break your leg, that changes the achievability and realistic nature of walking a mile a day. It would be necessary to reassess that goal.
The process of setting goals is not a one size fits all. You can adapt the process and each goal to you and where you are at in your own life. Don’t get discouraged if you are struggling at first. Setting and achieving your goals gets easier over time. It is just a habit that takes time and effort to develop. So, whether you plan on walking a mile or running ten, make it SMART! Write it down, share it with a friend, post it on your vision board and just go out and do it!
Resources
Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (1984). Goal setting: A motivational technique that works!
Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (2007). New Developments in and Directions for Goal-Setting Research. European Psychologist.
Latham, G. P., & Locke, E. A. (2013). Goal setting theory, 1990. In E. A. Locke & G. P. Latham (Eds.), New developments in goal setting and task performance (pp. 3-15). New York, NY: Routledge.
Matthews, G. (2015). Goal Research Summary. Paper presented at the 9th Annual International Conference of the Psychology Research Unit of Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), Athens, Greece.
McRaven, W. (2014). Commencement speech delivered at the University of Texas, United States.
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