We’re always led to believe that we need to set our selves goals in order to achieve our dreams and aspirations . Pick up any self-development book, listen to any motivational speaker and they all say the same thing – without clear goals you’ll find it difficult to achieve the things you want to achieve in life . Yet how often have you set a particular goal or pursued a course of action and still find that for some reason you don’t quite end up in the place that you hoped you would ?
You see, goal setting is one thing but goal achievement is another and for me there’s always been a piece of the jigsaw missing. Having recently worked with a top executive coach I discovered a winning recipe for turning goal setting into goal achievement .
Many people who approach goal setting for the first time dream of living in a bigger house in a better neighbourhood or owning faster cars or moving their children to better schools . These are all valid and achievable desires and indeed seem quite compelling on the surface. If they’re smart they then , break down this goal into smaller goals – they ask themselves; how much more would I need to earn to make these changes? what does that mean in terms of my annual, monthly and weekly income? And it’s at this point the the difference between their current position and their desired position becomes real and the distance to travel between those two points seems too overwhelming . So they keep their goal front of mind in the hope that if they think about it for long enough it will just happen . As crazy as this sounds , there are many out there that follow this pattern of thinking and as a result fall short of their goals and end up selling out on a dream .
There is another way and it requires planning, discipline, endeavour and effort. So if you were hoping there was some silver bullet that could circumvent these steps then stop reading this now . There might not be a silver bullet but there is a winning formula that if you follow will stack the deck heavily in your favour.
The first step is to set an End Goal, it has to be so compelling that it will drag you out of bed on those cold dark winter mornings to do the daily disciplines. Wanting to drive a faster is unlikely going to do it for you but achieving financial independence might. Discovering your End Goal is the first step and an important one, you’ll need to ask yourself these questions over and over again, each time taking your thinking to a higher level until your answer becomes the same for both questions ;
- What do I want?
- What will this do for me?
Now that you’ve created your end goal , it’s time to drill down into some detail , these are the milestones that will help keep you on track and also let you know when you’re off track. Getting to your Performance Goals is the next important step, exploring the answers to the following questions will reveal this next level of goals ;
- What will it look like when I’ve achieved my End Goal?
- How will I know I’ve achieved it?
- What will I be doing that’s different?
- How will I be feeling
- What specifically will have changed in my life that will be clear indications to me and others that I am on track and have achieved my goal?
- When do I imagine that I will have achieved this goal?
- What are the key incremental milestones along the way that will be vital sources of data for me to appraise my progress?
So you know where you’re heading and why you’re heading in that direction . You now need to descend down to the final tier of goals , these are the daily disciplines that are within your control. Your process goals are the things that you can do to move towards your performance goals. If you can get up early then get up early. if you can attend a seminar that will give you new insights , then do the research, book your place and attend it. If you can read a book that will help you plan more effectively, then get down to the library and read it. These things are all relatively easy to do, but in life we often find the things that are easy to do are also the things that are easy not to do .
You have no control over your End Goal nor your Performance Goal, the only thing you can control are your Process Goals – the daily disciplines that will move you in the direction of your End Goal . I haven’t found a silver bullet yet and I’ve worked with some experienced executive coaches who say the same thing; start with a compelling end goal, break it down into realistic milestones and performance goals and then concentre on the things that you can control and just do the best you can.
