Make your goals a MOAT. A line of defense surrounding the castle of your life.
Goals that can be reached are often Measurable, Ownable, Attainable & Targeted.
Another popular acronym is SMART. Meaning Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” Benjamin Mays.
However, setting goals if vital if you want to be successful. Whichever system you use.
Click here to download our free: Goal Setting Templates
Hardwire your brain by writing goals
“Cognitive Psychology studies have shown that our brains remember what we write better than what we read. It’s called the generation effect – A robust memory phenomenon in which actively producing material during encoding acts to improve later memory performance.” – NCBI
“Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews, at the Dominican University in California, led a study on goal setting with nearly 270 participants. The results? You are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down.” – Inc.
“Man is a goal seeking being. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.” – Aristotle
“Writing things down happens on two levels: external storage and encoding. External storage is… you’re storing the information contained in your goal in a location (like paper)… you will remember something much better if you’re staring at a visual cue (aka reminder) every single day. Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus where they’re analyzed… Writing improves that encoding process. In other words, when you write it down it has a much greater chance of being remembered.” – Forbes.
SET A GOAL THAT IS MEASURABLE
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
A goal should have a specific point in which you can measure success or failure. When you set up goals ask yourself, “When, where, why or by how much. Make sure there’s measurable progress, so you can see the change occurring.
A measurable goal is, “I will read three books before my next birthday”. Writing, “I want to read more”, is impossible to measure. What is more? Writing, “I will Lose 10 pounds by July 4th”, gives two measurements – a weight amount, and a date!
Goals are easier to manage when we can track progress. Having measurable goals keeps us on track. It indicates when or if we need to make changes along the way. It’s hard to get where you’re going when you don’t have a specific destination.
SET A GOAL THAT IS OWNABLE
Some may ask, “who sets goals for other people?” I say pretty much everyone. It’s human nature to want to change behavior or attitudes we find unappealing in others.
How many of us have thought, “If only my boss, neighbor, spouse, or children would change, then I would be soooo much better off.”
Yeah, maybe it would help. But our goals must be ours. We must be able to own them. We can help influence, give direction, and make life easier for others. But if our goal is “world peace” then we are setting ourselves up for failure. Because its entirely dependent on everyone else.
“If you’re bored with life — you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals. – Lou Holtz
Our goals must always be clearly defined around us. Not that were selfish, but our goals must be for ourselves first, and then we can bring others in.
For example, if we want to have a family reunion, then we must be willing to organize the reunion by ourselves, regardless if others get involved or not.
When we identify goals most important to us, we begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. Then we can develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them.
SET A GOAL THAT IS ATTAINABLE
Setting a goal too far out of reach, means we won’t commit to doing them for long. Because our subconscious will keep reminding us of this fact, which eventually stops us from giving it our best. Starting simple increases our chance of success. Especially in the beginning.
We must be in as much control as possible. If we base goals on personal performance, we can keep control and draw satisfaction over our achievements. It’s quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond our control!
Our abilities do not always determine what we accomplish in the future, because skills and abilities can be learned along the way. Chris Rither
Everyone will eventually set goals that are too high, and not appreciate the obstacles in the way. Or we might misunderstand the skills required to meet a particular level of performance. Making course adjustments is just part of the game. It’s like trying to compete in a marathon without entering a few shorter races first.
It’s a learn as you go kind of thing. Setting attainable goals becomes easier over time. We eventually learn what works and what doesn’t.
I also encourage people to reach beyond themselves at least once a year. Because succeed or fail, at least we’ve made the effort. And we might be surprised just what we can obtain.
SET A GOAL THAT IS TARGETED
Another word for targeted is specific. Just think of it like a dart board. The bullseye is the ultimate target, but the surrounding area is still worth points!
When we set a goal, write them as specific and with as much details as possible. We tend to want to take the path of least resistance in life. It’s easy to say, my goal is to “Love everyone”. When we should be striving to “Love our neighbor next door”.
Our minds do not function well with vague or ill-defined concepts. We should give our mind a set of detailed instructions to work on. The more information we give it, the clearer the outcome becomes.
Sometimes we need to set a goal and list what we really want in a goal. Instead of writing, “My goal is to buy a new home”. We could write, “I want a 3,000 sq. ft. turn of the century home with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, large front porch, view of the mountain on at least 3 acres of land”. Even if we settle for less, at least we know what we are looking for.
The more precise we specify an outcome, the more efficient we are in setting proper action steps, following through and measuring our success.
OTHER GOAL SETTING TIPS
1 WRITE THEM AS POSITIVE AS POSSIBLE:
Writing goals helps create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. When you set a goal try changing it from, “I want to quit smoking” to “Stop smoking to live a healthier life.” This focuses on the secondary outcome (being healthy) as well as breaking a bad habit.
2 HAVE A MENTAL PICTURE OF YOUR GOAL:
Motivation is often fueled by increasing the stimulation of our senses. Using photos, videos, blogs, drawing, music, fragrance or graphics may also help provide a clearer mental image. Increasing our focus often helps us reach our goals.
3 RE-WRITE IF NECESSARY:
If first you don’t succeed, try modification. Sometimes it helps to rephrase, add pithy or rhyming wording, and continually fine tune your goals. Approaching an objective by a different angle may help see other avenues for success.
4 MAKE IT EMOTIONALLY ATTRACTIVE:
Setting a goal without an emotional attachment, may make it difficult to reach. Ask yourself, “Do I really want this, or is it just some flight of fancy?” Listen to your instincts, because sometimes it’s really all about motivation.
5 BE CAREFUL IT’S NOT DESTRUCTIVE
Traveling around the world is a great goal. But not if you leave your spouse and children waiting for you back home. Ideally our goals should not bring harm to loved ones or the environment in which we live.