Successful goal-setting

Does the Covid-19 pandemic and global lockdowns mean that we should change our goals?

Absolutely not.  Obviously, there’s an awful lot going on in the world right now, but that shouldn’t block your goals for the year ahead. The route to achieving them might be a little bit different now, and you might have to work a little bit harder, or think a bit differently, but your goals don’t have to change.

What is your number one tip to achieving goals?

To actually set them!  It might sound obvious, but so many people never take the time to sit down and set clear goals. A lot of people have goals that are a bit vague and tend to make reactive decisions, rather than proactively following a well-plotted path, with a definite end-point. 

Less than 1% of people actually have their goals written down, and this is a big mistake.  You must commit them to paper. Personally, I have a piece of card in my wallet with my two biggest goals written on it. I carry them everywhere, and I look at them regularly.  When you constantly see your goals written down, you tend to subconsciously start doing the things which lead you towards achieving them.

What is the best way to set and achieve goals?

Have some structure to your goal setting.  Follow specific steps, otherwise you’re likely to feel overwhelmed and end up with goals and actions that lack clarity and that you don’t feel passionate about.  You need to give yourself an hour or so to focus, think, and methodically work through each step.

 What are the key things to think about when setting goals?

Start with an honest evaluation of where you are right now.  It’s really difficult to plot a way forward if you aren’t even sure where you currently are.  You’ll get stuck, or lost. 

The pandemic is at the forefront of thinking for most of us, but that isn’t something we can control, so look at the things that you specifically did over the last year. What actions did you take that served you well?  What things did you do that didn’t work out so well, but that you can learn from?  These could be very simple, small things.  

Once you have a clearer picture of where you are now, ask yourself where you want to be this time next year.  It can be useful to break this down into categories, such as personal, mental health, financial, physical, work; any area of your life that’s important to you. And, within each category, you can then divide it further.  For example, one area of work might be social media.  Where you are now, is at a certain number of followers and posting a certain number of times a week, but you may have an amount that you want this to increase by over the next 12 months.  Once you know your starting point and your end goal, you need to plot your route to achieving it.

But, before you can effectively establish the way forward, you need to evaluate your habits, so that you can assess which ones to keep, which ones to change, or which new habits you need to adopt.  Ultimately, if you don’t make changes to your habits, you won’t get to your goals.  It’s an old adage, but it’s absolutely true that nothing changes if you change nothing.  If you keep doing the same things over and over again, you’re going to get the same results.

Next, brainstorm every single goal that you’ve got for this year. Imagine you could do anything that you wanted to. Anything you like!  Then, choose one personal goal, and one work related goal that you want to accomplish in the next 90 days, ideally the ones that are going to have the biggest impact on your life.  Write them down, and put them somewhere that you will see multiple times a day.  This might be your fridge, your screensaver, your desk, your top drawer, or your purse.  And get obsessed about them! The whole point is to tap into your subconscious mind. 

The final thing is to define what you need to do to make these goals a reality.  What habits do you need to have?  What actions do you need to take?  What do you need to stop doing?  Look at the people around you too; including those on your social media feeds.  Who is, and isn’t, helpful to you achieving your goals?  Plot a route, make changes, and take action. 

What are the specific steps you suggest taking when setting goals?

There are nine steps that I recommend, worked through in order.  Essentially, you need to ask yourself nine questions:

1. What went well for you last year?
2. What didn’t go well for you last year?
3. How does where you are now compare with where you want to be?
4. What habits do you want to develop?
5. What habits do you want to stop?
6. What are all the goals you have for this year?
7. What are the two goals, one personal and one work-related, that you want to accomplish in the next 90 days?
8. What do you need to do differently to make these two goals a reality?
9. Who do you need to have around you to help you achieve these goals?