Over the past few months I've put a lot of time into working out how I can set and achieve goals. Setting goals (usually written down) is something I've done for the last 20 years. Achieving them on a regular basis is something I've only done the last few months.
Setting unachievable goals. When I first started triathlons back in 1994 I had a goal of being selected for the national team in my first year.
Unfortunately that goal, and many others, were in no way achievable. I was too impatient. It's great to have big dreams but to place an unrealistic deadline on them is just setting yourself up for failure. If I had stuck with triathlons I am sure I could have got into the national team. But because I didn't meet my goal of selection within one year I got disillusioned and quit. In reality I made huge strides in improving my triathlon ability but I got hung up on the goal and couldn't give myself the pat on the back I deserved.
Having only one level of goal In the past I've tended to only have high level goals such as 'be a professional cyclist within 3 years'. I didn't have the small, incremental goals which are vitally important to give small successes along the way to the big goal. And I didn't tie my high levels goals in with my core values. So from both sides my goals were lacking.
My family and I enjoyed a 2 week holiday in the mountains in Italy over Christmas 2012. During that holiday I took a lot of time to reflect on my goals and what I wanted to achieve. Here's the process I arrived at...
Formulate your personal mission statement How do you see your ideal self? For me it was as a great father, husband and as someone who was fit, healthy and confident in themselves. From my mission statement I could figure out the values and qualities that were most important to me.
Work out your one year goals Where do you want to me in a year's time? I had sports goals, weight loss goals, goals for saving money, goals for helping my kids, etc.
For each one year goal list the intermediate goals For me, monthly goals are best. For my weight loss my long term goal is to lose 20kg (44 lbs). Each month I have a goal of losing 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs). Those 2.5 kg are super serious for me. I think about that goal each day. I find it important not to have too many goals at one time. For me I can really only fully focus on one thing at a time if big changes are needed. At the moment losing weight is my primary goal. I also have goals about helping my kids with reading and maths and my own personal goals with language learning but because they require less of a change than the weight loss I can incorporate those into my life fairly easily.
Plan the actions to reach your short-term goals Staying on the weight loss goal, my short term actions are to eat clean, nutritious meals, to log my calories consumed each day, and to consume less than my daily allowance of calories. This level of goals is all about concrete, actionable tasks.
Do it and track progress For my weight loss goal I track calories consumed and my weight each day. That may seem obsessive but for me it works best for keeping my attention on the goals and for keeping disciplined about performing the actions I need to reach the goal.
It's usually not easy achieving any worthwhile goal. But it can be done. And the journey itself can be super rewarding. Good luck!
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