How to Set Goals that You’ll Actually Achieve
We all know what it’s like to set a goal and fail to achieve it. The feelings of frustration as we start to consider that maybe we’re just not cut out for that kind of life after all.
It can be a hopeless feeling, especially when it’s attached to more than one goal. After all, we all have long lists of the things we want to accomplish in our lifetime, from getting in shape, to career success, to finding love and starting a family.
Failing to accomplish one goal is tough. Failing to accomplish multiple is downright brutal. And unfortunately, it’s an experience that most of us can relate to.
The main reason for this is that there’s a large disconnect between what it takes to set goals and what it takes to follow through and achieve them.
The former is easy. You close your eyes and start picking dreams off the shelves like a 5-year old writing his Christmas wish list.
6-pack? Check.
7-figure business? Obviously.
Marry a supermodel? Yes, please.
But, as easy as it is to come up with this list, ticking things off is a different story.
In reality, achieving your goals will take time and will require insane levels of commitment, discipline, and hard work. Assuming you even get started, of course. No wonder most people stay dreamers, right?
But not us. Badasses don’t quit until they get what they want.
So, what’s the solution here?
Simple. We need a new approach for how to set goals. We need to shift both how we set them AND our mindset as we work towards them. Doing this correctly will give you a much higher chance of following through and actually accomplishing something.
Let’s get started.
Forget SMART. Go SMARTER.
Most of us think we already know how to set goals. We’ve all heard of SMART goals, after all - the idea that an effective goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
But despite this widespread knowledge, most of us still aren’t achieving the goals we set. SMART clearly isn’t working, or at least, it’s not enough.
With that in mind, I recently picked up the book, ‘Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals’, by Michael Hyatt.
In it, Michael presented 2 very important ideas. The first is that rather than stopping at the 5th letter, goals should actually be SMARTER. I’ll run through what this means in a second.
The other key point is that a failure in goal achievement is often a motivation problem rather than an issue with the goal itself. I’ll dive into this more after we’ve spoken about SMARTER goals.
What Does SMARTER Mean?
Let’s go through each letter one at time:
Specific
Exactly how it sounds - your goal needs to be specific so that you know exactly what to do to complete it.
Learning to play the guitar is an unspecific goal. Learning to play Stairway to Heaven without making any mistakes is much more specific.
Measurable
As well as a clear, specific destination, you also need to be able to measure your progress along the way so you know if you’re getting closer.
To continue the guitar example, you’ll know how close you are by measuring how much of the song you’re able to play and how many mistakes you’re making. It’s much more difficult to measure how close you are if your goal is simply ‘learning to play the guitar’.
Actionable
An effective goal is something that you can act on. Learning to play a song on guitar is actionable because you practice. With that in mind, the goal would be even better if you were clear about how you’ll practice.
For example, you could learn to play Stairway to Heaven without making any mistakes, by practicing for 30 minutes each evening.
Risky
It probably goes without saying but there’s no point in setting a goal that’s easily achievable. At that point, it’s just a task to complete.
Any goal you work towards should be difficult enough that there’s actually some risk of failure. This is because the difficulty is exactly what will help you stretch and grow.
If you find yourself working towards a goal and it’s too easy, make sure to increase the difficulty or find a new goal to work on.
Time-keyed
With a goal that’s specific, measurable, and actionable, you know where you’re going and how to get there. But that’s not enough.
You also need to know when you’re going to achieve it by. Otherwise you could end up spending 3 years learning a single song.
Setting a deadline will help you plan when certain steps need to be done by and create a sense or urgency that’ll keep you motivated.
Exciting
This is where motivation starts to come in. Sometimes we fall into the trap of setting a goal that we don’t care about. Maybe social media or our friends have told us it’s important and we listen to them, despite the internal doubt.
Here’s the truth - if you don’t care about achieving a goal, your odds of making it happen are extremely low. You simply won’t have the drive to stay consistent and perform the difficult actions that’ll be required.
With that in mind, one of the keys for how to set goals effectively, is to step back and think about how you actually feel about it. Does it excite you or are there other things you’d rather be working on?
Relevant
Finally, make sure your goal is relevant to who you want to become. If you value your health and family, setting a goal that’s going to force you to work long hours, skip the gym, and miss family events probably doesn’t make sense.
Always make sure your goals are helping you become the badass you actually want to be, rather than what external pressures tell you to be.
So, that outlines the SMARTER approach to goal setting, but we’re not done yet. We still need to talk about consistency and motivation. We need to talk about how you keep grinding away at those goals even after the initial excitement has worn off.
Leveraging Motivation and Grit
If you want to give yourself the best shot at achieving your goals, making them SMARTER is a great start, but it’s not enough.
You also need to have systems in place to maintain motivation and keep yourself moving when things get difficult or boring.
With that in mind, let’s run through some strategies you can use.
Understand Your Why
The obvious one first - if you want to stay motivated towards a goal, you better understand why you’re doing it in the first place. And I don’t just mean the outer layer. Dig beneath the surface and look for the real intrinsic motivator.
Don’t assume you want to build a successful business just because you love money. Why do you love money? Is it because it buys you freedom and lets you travel the world in style? Or is it that it’ll give you the opportunity to pay back all the people who’ve ever supported you?
Understanding the real why behind your goal will give you a powerful source of energy whenever you need it. Figure it out and write it down somewhere so you can return to it whenever you’re feeling lazy or overwhelmed.
Create Urgency with Deadlines
I’ve already mentioned that your goals should be time-keyed. This means you need a clear timeframe in which to complete it.
When you’re deciding on this timeframe, it’s important to remember that setting a deadline can be a powerful motivator.
Nothing gets a brain working or a person moving quite like an impending deadline. If you feel like you’re lacking motivation, set a date in the near future and find a way to lock yourself in. For example, if you’re learning a song on guitar, call up some friends and tell them you’re going to play it for them in 2 weeks. Now you’ve got a deadline and some accountability. I guarantee you’ll find the energy to practice.
Make It Fun with Gamification
While no goal is ever going to be as immediately enjoyable as a real video game (they’re built to be addictive and endlessly rewarding, after all), that doesn’t mean you can’t steal some tricks to make your work a little easier to handle.
One way to do this is to attach an immediate, tangible reward to your work. For example, if you love coffee, grab one prior to working and allow yourself to take a sip every 5 minutes or at a pre-set milestone.
Another effective way is to track personal bests and create a little competition with yourself. Going back to the guitar analogy, you could track how many bars through the song you’ve gotten without making a mistake. Now, each time you practice, you can try and beat your previous best.
Assemble a Crew
There’s no better source of accountability than having other people expecting something from you. We’re pack animals after all… we’re wired to try and live up to other people's expectations of us.
With that in mind, try and assemble a crew around you when working towards a goal. Ideally, this’ll be a group of people working towards the same or a similar goal, but if that isn’t possible then grab some supportive friends and ask them to continually check up on your progress.
Measure Progress the Right Way
When it comes to measuring progress on a task, there are 2 key ways to do it.
Focusing on where you started and how far you’ve come
Focusing on the destination and how far you have to go
Both of these can be useful at times, however, most people aren’t proactive about which one they’re using.
Ideally, you want to be focusing on whichever period is shorter. For example, if you’ve started writing a book but have only written the first chapter, focusing on the 19 you still need to write will be overwhelming.
In that scenario, you’re much better off looking back at that first chapter and allowing yourself to enjoy how far you’ve already come. Remember that, at one point, the book was just a dream and now you’re actively turning it into a reality.
In contrast, once you’ve written 12 chapters, you should shift to focusing on the 8 you have left to write. It’s now become small enough to process and draw motivation from. You’re close to the finish line.
Be Prepared
Just because you know how to set goals, doesn’t mean achieving them won’t be difficult. You always need to remember that achieving big things is hard. After all, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing.
Along the way, you’re going to run into obstacles. This might be difficulty. It might be discovering a new weakness. Or it might just be boredom.
These are all natural parts of doing important work. More importantly, they’re NOT reasons to stop doing that work.
Keep this in mind the next time things get hard. Stay badass.