How To Set and Achieve Your Goals: Effective Goal Setting

Goal setting and achieving goals are two of the most powerful self-improvement techniques. But, achieving these can only be effective when the goals themselves are effective.

In this post, we’ll be looking in-depth at goals and goal setting. What are the different types of goal? How do you approach goal setting? You’ll learn this, and more, by reading on.

This post will focus on goal setting, rather than brainstorming and thinking of goals. Instead, if you’re interested in a post on goal creation, leave a comment or get in touch.

What Are Goals?

Goals are things that you want to do. They are ideas of the future; desired results or outcomes that you plan and commit to achieving.

‘Plan and commit to achieving‘ is important when looking at goals in comparison to dreams.

Dreams are like goals but are much less effective at bringing about an outcome. Unlike with a goal, a dream is a wish – something that you’d like to happen without putting in the work.

You use desire to fuel dreams. Dreams can provide inspiration, but differ from goals in a few core ways. Goals consist of action and progress.

To make a dream achievable, you must first make it into a goal.

Goal setting isn’t a one-time thing

Goal-setting is an ongoing process. You don’t (or shouldn’t) set your goal once and forget about it.

Revisit your goal(s) daily. Set updated goals as a result of your evaluations, and don’t limit yourself to goals in one specific area.

A successful and happy life is a balanced life – set goals in many different categories of your life. Most people default to these types of goal:

• Financial
• Career
• Relationship

But often forget about these types of goals:

• Emotional
• Family
• Spiritual

All are important and required for your best possible life.

Key Differences Between GOALS and DREAMS

Dreams are things that you want to happen. Goals are things that you will make happen.

Here, the difference is action. Dreams are passive, goals are active. You won’t achieve your dreams if you never take action towards that dream. The best way of taking action is through setting and working towards a goal.

Dreams are based in fantasy. Goals are based in reality.

The very essence of a goal is realistic. We’ll look at S.M.A.R.T goals later in this post. This system of setting goals requires your goals to be realistic or Achievable.

Dreams, though, are things that are based in fantasy. It would be amazing if they happened, but with dreams, we rarely want to put in the work. Instead, many of us rely on luck and chance.

A good example is wanting to become a millionaire. The dream of becoming a millionaire may cause someone to buy a lottery ticket.

The goal of becoming a millionaire would need a person to plan and act in accordance to that goal.

A dream is a wish. A goal is a plan.

The difference here is the approach. A wish is something that you desire or hope to happen; a plan is an intention or decision to achieve something.

Hope is not a strategy. You will not get what you hope for without putting in the work.

The Importance Of Setting Goals

Goals provide a sense of direction and promote focus. We control how our brain sees the outside world; we tell it what to focus on. If you set a goal, you can program your brain so that it begins to focus on that goal.

Your brain will begin to look for connections and opportunities relevant to achieving that goal. But, to do this, you need to tell your brain what it should be focusing on daily.

Some of the best ways of programming your brain for goal setting include the following:

• Reading and evaluating your goals
• Daily affirmations
• Creating and using a vision board

By looking at your goal, reading through it, and evaluating your current progress, you will reinforce your brain’s focus on that goal.

Daily affirmations help your subconscious to absorb certain information.

A vision board is a clear reminder that you can look at for inspiration. This will also promote action.

People who are without goals aren’t as successful as they want to be. They often lack a sense of direction and clear purpose. This presents them from having motivation to grow and improve.

Having a goal isn’t enough though; you need to write it down to maximise effectiveness. People who don’t write out their goals are less likely to achieve those goals.

I would guess that this is because writing it down solidifies the idea in your brain. This helps your subconscious to program that into your mind.

Essentially, goals are important because they allow us to achieve what we want to achieve. They provide an understanding of what we want, why we want it, and how to get there; without this information, it’s much harder to live the life we want to live.

Types Of Goal

The most popular and effective system for setting goals is S.M.A.R.T goals. Let’s begin with looking at this type of goal, followed by some other types that you can set.

S.M.A.R.T stands for:

S – Specific

Your goals must be clear and well defined. You can only get to exactly where you want to be with a precise definition of that desired outcome.

A goal that is too vague will provide less motivation and clarity upon completion.

The goal of learning to play the piano, for example, is too vague. It’s easy to mark this goal as completed when you’ve learnt how to play a simple melody with 4 notes.

Instead, the goal of ‘achieving grade 6 in the piano’ is more specific. It’s clear exactly when you have achieved your goal.

M – Measurable

Your goal must have some form of measuring progress. Without this, you will be unable to see how far you’ve come at any point.

A measurable goal allows you to track your progress and to set milestones. Both are important to keep you motivated and driven to achieve said goal.

Define exactly how much progress you must make before you can achieve your goal. In the example above, our form of measurement can be grades achieved playing the piano. Grades 1 through 5 are clear milestones.

But, you might be an absolute beginner at the piano. If this is the case, then your goal could be ‘achieving grade 1 at the piano’. Your form of measurement could be being able to play songs of increasing difficulty.

With Measurable, ensure you can actually track your progress. Your goal might be to lose weight. If you set this goal, but don’t have a set of scales, you’re unable to measure your progress.

Instead, the goal of eating less fast food and less sugar would be more measurable. Or, make your goal measurable by simply investing in some scales.

A – Achievable

If your goal isn’t actually achievable, you won’t feel motivated to go out and work towards it. Again, the goal of getting a grade 6 in the piano is currently unachievable if you’re a complete beginner. Grade 1 seems much more attainable.
How much of an influence do outside forces have in the achievement of your goal?

Achievable is about your personal ability to complete that goal. Considering this, think about if you have or can develop the relevant skill(s)?

Also, is the outcome of the goal altered by your personal work and progress? If outside forces play a significant role in the completion of your goal, it will be difficult to achieve, since you don’t have as much control.

The goal of ‘getting hired’ isn’t within your control, so isn’t Achievable. This means the goal isn’t 100% effective. Instead, ‘applying to 100 jobs next month’ would be a more achievable goal.

Further, you’ll benefit by first setting a small, more achievable goal. Complete that particular goal, then set a slightly more difficult goal.

We can use an archery analogy to help explain this point.

I learned this analogy through Stefan James of Project Life Mastery. I thought it explains the point well.

Imagine you’re a beginner archer and you need to hit a target. You’re not going to put the target 50 feet away and try to hit it – your chances of success, of hitting the target, are very low.

Instead, start with putting it 5 feet away, to a distance where you know you can actually hit the target. Hit the target a few times, so you know that it’s achievable, and then slightly increase the distance.

Do the same with the target at 10 feet, then 20, then 30, 40, and 50. Each time you hit the target, you increase your skill and prove to yourself that you have the skill required. Soon, with your increased ability to hit the target, you’ll be able to hit that 50 feet target.

R – Relevant

Is your goal relevant to your current life or your life plan? If not, you’re unlikely to feel motivated to achieve it. A goal that isn’t relevant will be taking time away from your life and not providing enough value in return.

The goal of learning a language is great. But, if you have no plans to travel until a year from now, the goal isn’t relevant.

T – Time-bound

Without a deadline, your goal will go on forever. This means you won’t be making enough progress on a regular basis to achieve said goal. You’ve got all the time in the world, why work towards your goal now?

This might be the most important of the 5 parts of S.M.A.R.T goals. Without a clear time where the goal ends, you won’t be able to determine the outcome. You won’t know if the goal was a success or failure unless there is a deadline for evaluation.

A sense of urgency – an approaching deadline – will increase your productivity. Think about times where you’ve completed essays to a deadline. You completed most of the work in the days leading up to the deadline.

This concept is known as Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

C. Northcote Parkinson

As the deadline for your goal approaches, work and progress towards the goal will increase.

Without a deadline, your goal is a dream.

A Useful Combination

We can use Measurable in combination with Time-bound as an effective way to make progress. Doing so allows you to track your progress and set proper milestones towards your goal. This pairing allows you to measure progress as a general average, too.

An unrestricted goal of ‘losing 10 pounds’ is difficult to measure over a period of time. There is no clear end date.

But, losing 10 pounds over 10 weeks is much better. We can calculate rough milestones with this information. Your milestones could be an average of the overall progress.

So, your milestones could be to lose 1 pound each week over the 10 weeks. You can find this information by dividing your form of measurement by time available.

Here, that would be 10 pounds divided by 10 weeks. 10/10 = 1.

Milestones such as this are useful for showing us our progress. They are useful to see how far we currently are along the journey towards our goal.

It helps to figure out what action steps you need to take to achieve those milestones. This will inspire you to actually take action. Without relevant and tangible progress towards your goal, you will lose motivation and may quit.

At times like this, I like to remind myself of a quote:

Winners never quit. Quitters never win.

Vince Lombardi

S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals

An adapted and improved version of S.M.A.R.T goals is to include an E and an R:

E – Evaluate

Without evaluation of your goals, you won’t be able to see where you are faltering, where you can improve, and where your strengths lie. Evaluation promotes growth and an improved ability to achieve future goals.

R – Reward

Congratulate yourself! You’ve worked hard and achieved something, so celebrate! Reward yourself. Like with habits, the reward is a positive reinforcement that encourages future action.

By rewarding your progress, you increase the likelihood that you will strive to achieve more goals in the future. Setting a reward for achieving your goal can also act as added motivation.

You can set rewards relevant to the goal, too. A good example is a marathon ticket as a reward for running 25 miles in one session.

I want to take this one step further by combining this with Measurable. Every time you reach a milestone, take a minute to celebrate.

Try not to reward yourself as much as you would when completing the main goal. But do ensure you take some time to appreciate and feel grateful for the progress you have made so far.

OKRs – Objectives and Key Results Goals

Setting OKRs is another approach to goal-setting. OKRs are setting the What and the How.

Objectives are significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspiring.

Key Results should be specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic, measurable, and verifiable. You can see some overlap with the S.M.A.R.T system.

Most important, though, is the Why. What’s the purpose of the goal? Without this, you’ll lack motivation and the goal will feel less solid. The Whyis your source of motivation. What will the outcome do for you?

OKRs are about choosing the right Objective and sticking to it year after year. They are most useful for business environments rather than personal lives.

There’s a great talk that discusses this in further detail, which you can check out here:

10X Goals

Grant Cardone, author of ‘The 10X Rule‘, explains another approach to goals. This can change how much success you achieve.

In essence, the 10X Rule is taking your goal, whatever it may be, and multiplying it by 10. It’s about being extremely ambitious. Want to become a millionaire? Why not a multi-millionaire, or even a billionaire?

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

Les Brown

By setting a 10X goal, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Cardone believes that the worst thing would be making more progress than if your goal was only ‘1X’.

Think about it. You’d be more than happy with several million to your name if your goal was to be a multi-millionaire. You might not be happy having several hundred-thousand if you had the 1X goal of being a millionaire.

The 10X Rule helps you to keep striving for more. To achieve 10X results, you need to think with a 10X mindset and set 10X goals. Taking action towards that goal would need 10X more than you think is necessary.

The Exception

The 10X Rule can be useful and will push you to achieve more. But, one could argue that a 10X goal isn’t Achievable, so doesn’t fit into the previous S.M.A.R.T philosophy.

Understanding this, 10X goals aren’t the best for beginner goal-setters. The 10X Rule goes against some of the things we have discussed and will discuss shortly. It’s here if you want to use it, but by no means necessary for success.

The RPM Plan

This RPM Plan has been adapted from Tony Robbins and is most useful to do during or after you have set your goal, not before. It’s similar to OKRs from before.

RPM, as you might have guessed, contains three central elements:

R – Result

Your goal is your result; the desired outcome of your progress. It’s the What.

P – Purpose

Underneath your goal, write your purpose for achieving that goal – WHY. Why is that goal important to you? Why do you want it? What’s the purpose of your goal?

M – Massive Action Plan

This approach could be RPA, but the word massive is useful to inspire and promote a more detailed approach. Your Massive Action Plan is the How.

List out all the actions you can take that will help you to achieve your goal. The longer and more detailed the list, the better. A longer list will provide a greater sense of clarity and direction.

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Thanks for reading so far. If you’d like to learn more, continue to part 2 of this post.

If you enjoyed this post or found it useful, share the site with your friends. Help them to achieve greater success in their lives by following proper goal-setting techniques!

We have loads of other useful posts if you want to learn more, so have a browse. Cheers!

Further Recommended Reading:

• Habit Creation
• How To Set SMART Goals
• Moving Out Of Your Parents House – Guide For Graduates