Set Better Goals And Achieve More
Set Better Goals And Achieve More
Not reaching your goals fast enough?
Not reaching your goals fast enough? The problem isn’t you; it’s your goals.
Setting goals always changes your behaviour — but not always in a good way.
Research shows that the right goals will:
Boost your productivity.
Increase your energy levels.
Improve your focus.
Improve consistency.
Unlock your creativity.
Speed up success.
At the same time, the wrong goals will make you:
Stressed.
Overwhelmed.
Exhausted.
Bored.
Lost.
Feel like you’re not good enough.
Focused on the problems instead of the solutions.
Likely to give up way too soon.
How do you differentiate between good and bad goals? And how do you set goals so you maximize your chance of (faster) success?
Whether you’re looking to gain followers, monetize your skills, grow your business, attract better clients or all of the above, levelling up your goal-setting skills will help.
So let’s level them up.
Secret of Success: How to set better goals & maximize your chances of achieving them.
What we’ll cover in this newsletter:
Before you start setting goals, do this.
How to differentiate between good and bad goals.
The most effective goal-setting method I know — based on the science of extraordinary achievement (it’s NOT the SMART goals method).
Beware of “old” and “new” goals.
For paid subscribers only:
The most common mistake beginners make when they set goals & how to overcome it.
How to find key goals that will help you progress faster and easier.
Before you start setting goals, do this.
Goals are like steps towards your big life vision.
If you don’t have a vision, goals become meaningless. How do you choose your next step if you don’t know where you’re going?
Your vision is similar to a big dream but different in a few ways:
Your vision should encompass your entire life, while dreams are usually about one area of your life only.
Your vision could be partly clear, partly foggy. Dreams are usually more specific. For the sake of goal-setting, you need to focus on the part of your vision that feels clear to you.
Your dreams are usually bigger (and braver) than your vision, and not necessary for you to be happy. Maybe you dream of winning an Oscar? Inspiring dream, but even if you don’t get there, you can still make great movies and live a great life, right? That’s your vision.
If you want to clarify your vision, it’s crucial that you write through it. Again, it doesn’t have to be super specific; just write the things you know you want.
My vision is:
I spend most of my work days writing & strategizing.
I’m location-free.
I’m free to create my schedule.
I make enough money to have the life I want and help my family.
I travel a lot.
It’s my job to be creative.
Once you design your vision, it’s easier to create goals around it.
How to differentiate between good and bad goals.
I wanted to prove to everyone that I could do this.
That was my first goal as a solopreneur. Everyone thought I was an idiot to leave my well-paid, flexible-schedule job with options for travel. And for what? Back in 2014, solopreneurship wasn’t as popular as it is today. My mom, my boss, my husband and my friends all thought I’d lost my mind (though some of them tried to hide it).
So, my goal was to earn my salary without a boss. Not a bad goal per se, but not a great one, either.
It was too small to get me excited, so my motivation changed from one day to another.
It was an entirely extrinsic goal — meaning it was motivated by the behaviour of others.
It was based on my low confidence, my anger, and the need to get people’s approval.
Unsurprisingly, I struggled to achieve it, and when I did, it didn’t bring me joy at all. This almost made me give up solopreneurship. Maybe it’s just not for me, I thought.
Of course, that was rubbish. I just had a lot more to learn, both in terms of strategy and psychology.
One of the things I had to learn was setting the right goals.
Good goals are:
Exciting.
Challenging but doable.
Important steps towards your vision.
Intrinsically motivated.
Bad goals are:
Overwhelming or underwhelming.
Either too easy or too big.
Not crucial for achieving your vision
Extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation is not all bad, but is usually enough just to get you started, not to keep you going when sh*t hits the fan.
What are your current goals? Do they match the bad goals or the good goals list? If they’re closer to the bad goals list, reconsider them.
The most effective goal-setting method I know, based on the science of extraordinary achievement.
I’ve always had a problem with the SMART goals concept. I’ve used it a few times but something was off.
The problem was that SMART goals didn’t protect me from setting bad goals. Bad goals could also be SMART — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
As I was trying to achieve better results, I looked for another way to frame goal setting and discovered it in the book HARD Goals: The Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
The author is Mark Murphy, New York Times bestselling author, contributor to FORBES & CNBC and rated as a Top 30 Leadership Guru. His book is based on extensive research on achievement.
“One of the most important findings from our research on goals is that people who set HARD goals feel up to 75% more fulfilled than people with weaker goals.” — Mark Murphy, HARD Goals
Here’s the concept of HARD goals, in short:
H — Heartfelt. If you don’t really care about your goals, there’s not going to be much motivation for you to achieve them. To achieve more, make sure you’re going after what you want more than anything else.
A — Animated. HARD goals are so vivid and alive in your mind that if you don’t reach them, you’d feel like something’s missing in your life. Visualize your life after you’ve achieved them. Marisa Peer says imagination is stronger than knowledge, so use it.
R — Required. You have to convince yourself achieving your goals is a necessity, not an option. The more attractive your goals are, the greater the urgency to get going on them right away.
D — Difficult. You want to set goals which are so hard they will force you to tap into your talents. On the other hand, you don’t want your goals to be so difficult you give up without even trying. What you have to do is assess your past experiences, figure out where your goal-setting sweet spot is and then set goals within that sweet spot.
Take one goal that’s important for you right now and run it through this list. Does it check out? If not, what can you change about it?
Beware of “old” and “new” goals.
Most goal-setting research uses another terminology: long-term goals and short-term goals.
My take on it? Old (long-term) and new (short-term) goals.
Here’s what I mean.
Old Goals (Long-term goals)
Long-term goals are difficult to set and difficult to achieve. Research shows that goals beyond 90 days increase levels of procrastination.
Yet, many of the things we want to achieve are built on long-term consistency. It takes years of publishing content online to gain a massive audience, earn a livable wage and build the solo business of your dreams.
The problem with long-term, action-based goals like “Publish 2 newsletters every week” is that they get old quickly. In the beginning, it’s exciting, it’s interesting, you’re bursting with ideas, and you’re grateful for every new reader.
With time, the goal loses its shine and becomes a boring to-do on your list.
“Old” goals lose their novelty, and you’re less likely to do them.
New Goals (Short-term goals)
New/short-term goals usually require a single action or a few actions done over a short period of time.
Send your book to literally agents. Start a newsletter. Create and launch your first digital product. Start posting on X (former Twitter).
New goals are exciting and it’s easy for self-starters (like the average solopreneur) to tick them off their list.
The most common mistake beginners make when they set goals & how to overcome it.
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The most common reason beginners fail to achieve their goals is that they underestimate how long it will take. It’s the “old” goals that trip them up.
I’d argue that that’s the most difficult part of solopreneurship—but there are 3 ways around it.
The post continues for paid subscribers.
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