The Most Powerful Skill You Can Learn: Goal Setting
Learning how toset goals properly is arguably the most powerful skill that you can possibly learn. Why? Because it will allow you to then accomplish a huge range of other goals. When you know how to set goals, it allows you to effectively work toward anything. This is the key to unlocking pretty much everything you could want from life.
So ironically, the first goal you should focus on is the goal of setting goals!
And until now, you’ve probably been doing it all wrong…
How can a goal be wrong?
Sure, any objective is a worthwhile one, but the way that you phrase your goals and structure them, is going to massively change your likelihood of finding success.
Let’s take weight loss as an example because it’s one of the more straightforward goals that is easiest to implement.
When you set out to lose weight, you should start with a concrete goal. And for most people this will look something like this:
“Lose 2 stone by next year”
This is a terrible goal.
At the same time, it’s out of your control. Even if you are completely committed to your goal, you may find that outside forces prevent you from being successful. Maybe you get ill, maybe you accidentally follow the wrong program, maybe it turns out you have a bad metabolism!
Finally, the goal is too far in the future. If your goal is to lose weight by next year, that then essentially gives you a license to procrastinate. The target is so far away, that you indulge yourself in a little overeating or put off exercise for a while and not worry about it until next month.
6 months pass and you realize you’re actually further from your goal.
And because it’s too late, you’re likely to just give up at this point.
What Good Goals Look Like
So, what does a good goal look like? How might you phrase this same objective in a manner that will increase your chances of success?
The first thing to do, is to focus on things that are immediately within your control and that are not influenced by outside factors at all. These goals should be things that you can accomplish in a guaranteed manner and that you will be immediately graded on on a pass-fail basis.
So for instance, instead of aiming to lose 2 stone by next year, you would use this goal:
“I will work out three times a week, every week, for at least 15 minutes”
Now that is a goal that you can aim for. Regardless of your metabolism, or of injury, or of any other outside factor, this is a goal that you can accomplish. It also means you can’t ‘put off’ the goal and it means you’ll never reach that disappointing point where you can no longer stand any chance of completing it. At any point in your life, there is no reason that you can’t set out to accomplish this goal and expect to be successful.
But by focussing on this small short term goal, you will then find that the long-term goal of losing the weight takes care of itself.
Learning how toset goals properly is arguably the most powerful skill that you can possibly learn. Why? Because it will allow you to then accomplish a huge range of other goals. When you know how to set goals, it allows you to effectively work toward anything. This is the key to unlocking pretty much everything you could want from life.
So ironically, the first goal you should focus on is the goal of setting goals!
And until now, you’ve probably been doing it all wrong…
How can a goal be wrong?
Sure, any objective is a worthwhile one, but the way that you phrase your goals and structure them, is going to massively change your likelihood of finding success.
Let’s take weight loss as an example because it’s one of the more straightforward goals that is easiest to implement.
When you set out to lose weight, you should start with a concrete goal. And for most people this will look something like this:
“Lose 2 stone by next year”
This is a terrible goal.
At the same time, it’s out of your control. Even if you are completely committed to your goal, you may find that outside forces prevent you from being successful. Maybe you get ill, maybe you accidentally follow the wrong program, maybe it turns out you have a bad metabolism!
Finally, the goal is too far in the future. If your goal is to lose weight by next year, that then essentially gives you a license to procrastinate. The target is so far away, that you indulge yourself in a little overeating or put off exercise for a while and not worry about it until next month.
6 months pass and you realize you’re actually further from your goal.
And because it’s too late, you’re likely to just give up at this point.
What Good Goals Look Like
So, what does a good goal look like? How might you phrase this same objective in a manner that will increase your chances of success?
The first thing to do, is to focus on things that are immediately within your control and that are not influenced by outside factors at all. These goals should be things that you can accomplish in a guaranteed manner and that you will be immediately graded on on a pass-fail basis.
So for instance, instead of aiming to lose 2 stone by next year, you would use this goal:
“I will work out three times a week, every week, for at least 15 minutes”
Now that is a goal that you can aim for. Regardless of your metabolism, or of injury, or of any other outside factor, this is a goal that you can accomplish. It also means you can’t ‘put off’ the goal and it means you’ll never reach that disappointing point where you can no longer stand any chance of completing it. At any point in your life, there is no reason that you can’t set out to accomplish this goal and expect to be successful.
But by focussing on this small short term goal, you will then find that the long-term goal of losing the weight takes care of itself.
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