How to set goals and achieve them - a complete checklist

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We talked about why you need to set goals in the previous article. Today we will tell you how to set a goal correctly.

Target. What is this?

A goal is the end result you are striving for. Most often, a goal stems from a dream or inspired desire. But inspiration alone is not enough, you also need work.

We can say this: goal = desire + conscious decision to act

.

Having set a goal, determine the tasks with the help of which you will achieve your plan.

The goal answers the question “WHAT needs to be done?”, the tasks tell you HOW to achieve the desired result.

For example, you wanted to learn English. Formulate a goal (to master a basic level of language in 1 year), make a decision and sign up for language courses.

The goal must be written down. How to do this correctly - watch our video:

Delegate some tasks

When achieving your goal, you will not be able to embrace the immensity and do everything on your own. Accept this fact. Focus on the critical tasks and save the rest for the future or give it to your team. Otherwise, according to Sean Covey, author of the bestselling book How to Achieve Your Goals, the Four Disciplines of Execution, you will:

• rush between tasks;
• accumulate a pile of unfinished tasks;
• waste energy.

This will complicate the process of achieving your goal.

Effective Tips to Reach Your Goals: Pexels

Check your goal against SMART criteria

To achieve the desired result, you can use different methods. The most universal is SMART technology. This is an acronym and it translates as “smart”. For over 60 years, people have achieved success using SMART technology. It includes 5 criteria that a properly set goal must meet.

Specificity (S)

Formulate your goal clearly and as clearly as possible.

No “lose weight” or “learn”. Be specific: “My weight is 65 kg,” “Win ​​at least 10 chess games.” By being specific, you will see your intermediate successes. For example, reducing weight from 80 kg to 71 will motivate you to work further, because there is less than half of the way to the goal.

How high do you set the bar for yourself? At what level do you want to master a skill or learn information? For example, it is enough for Mikhail to learn to play simple courtyard songs in three chords on the guitar, and Oksana strives to participate in international competitions.

Three levels of information and skills

Level 1. Basic.

Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours. How to learn anything” talks about the principle of sufficiency. The principle implies mastering a skill at a level sufficient for the activity to simply bring you satisfaction.

Level 2. Intermediate.

You operate with basic concepts, do not need ready-made templates, and can even advise others.

Level 3. High.

You know about all the subtleties and tricks of the subject you are studying. Other people point to you as an authoritative source and look to you as an example.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re improving your guitar skills or mastering how to create websites, there are differences in skill levels everywhere. Before setting a goal, determine what kind of result will suit you.

«When a person does not know which pier he is heading towards, no wind will be favorable for him

»

Seneca

Measurability (M)

Formulate your goal with numbers:

terms, volume, percentage, ratio, time

Any work implies the presence of a result. SmartProgress has a Completion Criteria option. By filling out this line, you will formulate for yourself what you need to achieve. How to determine that the goal has been achieved? Learned 100 English words, read 60 books, earned 800 thousand rubles.

Reachability (A)

Think about whether your goal is realistically achievable

Sometimes it’s enough just to use logic - you’re unlikely to vacation in Thailand if you have a pathological fear of airplanes.

When checking the goal against this criterion, take inventory of resources. This is time, knowledge, skills, money, useful information, acquaintances, experience. You already have some of this, but you still need to get some. SmartProgress has a “Personal Resources” field that will help you think again about what will help you achieve your goal.

Relevance (R)

The goal must be related to other goals and not contradict them

This criterion is also called environmental friendliness of the goal in the sense of “carefully for what already exists.”

How much does a new goal help or at least not interfere with existing ones?

Environmental friendliness can be internal and external. Internal refers to your aspirations, values, beliefs. External environmental friendliness is the relationship between new and old goals.

For example, you want to become the head of a department, but for this you need to travel frequently on business trips. And one of your goals is to spend more time with your family. Here the two goals conflict and cannot be considered environmentally friendly.

Questions to ask yourself:

• How does your new goal compare to your old goals, desires, lifestyle, expectations?
• Is this the result you want to achieve by setting this goal?
• Is it worth the effort?
• Why and for what purpose do you want to achieve this goal?

Timed (T)

Set a deadline for achieving your goal

Clearly set deadlines motivate you to work more actively. It's easy to look back to see how far you've come and how much you still have to go. Parkinson's Law states: “Every job increases in volume to fill all the time available for it.” Therefore, if a goal does not have a deadline, you are unlikely to get around to it.

Are you afraid of being disappointed and not achieving your goal in the allotted time? Then set the deadline a little further than required.

Don't give in to procrastination

Track your productivity. If you notice that you are constantly putting off one of your important tasks, you most likely have fallen into the trap of procrastination. Record this moment and try to switch from the routine to what is really important, or rather, just take it and start doing it.

Does not work? Try to formulate the consequences of not completing the task. Analyze what you're spending your time on when you're not working on something important. Are you stuck on your phone and social networks? There are several ways to solve this problem:

• Set aside half an hour a day to communicate with friends on social networks. Put this time in your diary. Once this social break is over, it will be easier to return to your day job.
• Put your phone away. Do not take out the gadget until a certain amount of work is completed.

Example of a SMART goal

S (specific)

— Play the acoustic guitar: correctly place the basic chords, use fingerpicking and different types of strumming in the game.

M
(measurable)
- play 10 songs by the groups Spleen, Basta, Gradusy.

A
(achievable)
- there is a guitar, tutorials on the Internet, time, money for classes in the studio or with a tutor.

R
(relevant)
- I want to perform at a bard song competition, and also be popular with girls.

T
(limited time)
- July 2021.

Why does this technology work?

• You audit all resources and evaluate whether the goal is achievable.

It happens that one gives up and emotions say: “Oh, that’s it. I can not do it". Don't give in to your feelings, use logic: you have everything you need to get to the end. And if there are no resources, then you know where to get them.

• You can clearly see the end result.

If biathletes didn’t see their target, how would they shoot? A specifically formulated goal helps you understand whether you are going in the right direction and how close you are to the goal.

• Set tasks more effectively on the way to your goal.

Knowing what, where and when you want to get it makes it easier to achieve what you want. You have assessed your resources, checked the relevance of the goal - now you can continue on your way.

To move quickly and efficiently, you need to carefully plan your actions.

How I set goals and achieved results - sharing my experience

At the age of 24, I set several goals using the technology described above.

The document with written goals was called “PLAN 30” , implying that they should be fulfilled by my 30th birthday.

Alexander Berezhnov (pictured) is the founder of the “PAPA HELPED” project. Yes it's me

At that time, I had no idea how I could achieve them, and only faith in success helped me move forward.

I won’t go into detail about my goals from 6 years ago, I’ll just say that the result even exceeded my expectations. During this period, I managed to get married, have children, buy several apartments in a prestigious residential complex in my city and a foreign car, and help my relatives financially.

I realized that nothing is impossible. And even if you now have no idea how you can get what you want, just act, and you will eventually be able to “eat the elephant piece by piece.”

From my own experience, I know that big goals scare people, and they continue to be content with little, instead of pulling themselves together and making their dreams come true.

Now I’m already working on my goals, which I called “ PLAN 40” . In 10 years (I'm 30 now), I'm going to build a number of large sources of passive income, strengthen family relationships, give my children a better education and raise them properly.

I will also definitely continue to engage in charity work, social activities and education. I plan to write several books and make my own film, visit 10 countries of the world and meet a number of outstanding people of our time.

We'll see which of these goals I can achieve in 10 years, but intuitively I feel that this plan is being implemented 100%!

Plan and work

Knowing WHAT you want to achieve, it is easier to determine HOW to achieve it. If the goal is complex or long-term (create your own business in the IT industry, buy an apartment without taking out a mortgage), then your action plan will be more extensive. Don't be alarmed. We will tell you about 2 ways to go towards your huge goal in our video

.

1. By time. Set yourself milestones. What should I achieve in a year? What should I be like in 2 years? What should I know, be able to do?
2. Make a list of everything you need to do to achieve your goal. Get an education, study the market sector, analyze the achievements of competitors, reach first the local, then the regional level - the more detailed the actions are, the more effective the work will be.

The famous “Harvard experiment” on goal setting

In 1979, Harvard University conducted an experiment designed to determine the impact of goal setting on success in a person's life. The experiment lasted about 10 years.

To do this, they selected a group of students and asked who sets their goals, and most importantly, writes them down on paper. It turned out that only 16% of 100% had at least some goals in life and only 3% of those who wrote them down on paper in the correct way.

A few years later, this group of graduates was surveyed again and it turned out that those who had at least some goals at the university earned on average 2 times more than their aimless comrades. People who were included in the 3%, who recorded their goals in writing, earned 10 times! more than their classmates.

There is something to think about, what do you think?!

Supplement your main goal with useful habits

A habit is an automated action that we constantly feel the need to perform. We automatically do exercises, drink coffee in the morning, and check email when we come to work. And if something disrupts the course of events, we begin to get nervous.

Habits help you save internal energy to solve more important and complex tasks. There is no longer any need to waste time and energy thinking about whether to do exercises now. You just go and do what needs to be done without thinking. Therefore, it is important to form healthy habits. They make our lives easier and have a positive impact on our work.

Watch your thoughts - they become words.

Watch your words - they become actions.

Watch your actions - they become habits.

Watch your habits - they become character.

Watch your character - it determines your destiny.

O. Khayyam

Where to begin

In order to choose a direction, following which will lead to new achievements , you should understand the following rules:

• It is necessary to set only valid goals for yourself. Things that are not achievable in principle will only take up time and energy. Instead, you could spend yourself gaining material possessions. For some ideas, you can stop at conceptualizing or experiencing;
• In their own desire to achieve what they want, people do not realize that they are going the wrong way and are wasting their energy on fulfilling other people’s desires. This can happen when a person tries to become a media personality or a famous scientist. In fact, this is an incorrectly set goal, since the result is focused on rising in the eyes of parents, acquaintances or social environment;
• Do not forget that happiness is a moment that is not experienced very often in life . In overestimating one's own potential, the end result itself may not bring as much joy and euphoria as it seems at first glance.

Knowing how to quickly achieve his goals, a person begins to think through every step , in search of a reasonable and rational solution. The ability to achieve the desired result often comes with age. In practice, there is a category of people who spend 1-2 months searching for a solution.

SmartProgress helps you form healthy habits

On the SmartProgress service you can set not only a regular goal, but also a habit goal. This will help form and consolidate daily repetitive actions: jogging in the morning, reading books, walking, getting up early. If you decide to give up something, then in this case the habit goal will work. Regularity is important when forming a habit. That's why a habit goal doesn't take a vacation. Running in the morning every other day or taking a break from sports on holidays will not achieve the desired result.

For example, in your SmartProgress profile you set a habit goal to “get up early.” Your job is to check in with your goal after completing your daily action.

For five days you conscientiously celebrated your achievements, but you missed the sixth day. A red cross (failure) appears in the habit goal and you have to start your journey again.

Once you place the final checkmark on your goal, it will automatically complete. Write a conclusion, note the difficulties and successes of forming this goal. And start a new one! As Lao Tzu said, “A journey of 1000 li begins with the first step.”

1. Think about which goal is most relevant to you today. Is this a habit goal or does it require relatively more preparation?
2. Formulate the goal in accordance with SMART criteria. It must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
3. Choose how you plan your actions: chronologically or to-do list.
4. Create a goal on SmartProgress and write down your plan to achieve the goal.
5. Start implementing the plan.

Sometimes people set goals incorrectly. Because of this, they become disillusioned and feel unable to achieve greater heights. But EVERYONE can set goals and achieve what they want. We, members of the SmartProgress team, support you and wish you success in achieving your goal!

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Existing techniques, exercises, techniques

To gain confidence as a strong motivational stimulus, you can use established practices.

Today, such techniques are used under the guidance of experienced psychologists, who select techniques based on personality characteristics and the properties of the final goal.

How to eat a whole elephant

Mastering a large amount of information or the desire to embrace the immensity becomes an impossible task even for professionals in their field. But dividing a task into several stages, stages or elements allows you to focus on the final result through sequential execution of actions or an algorithm that has been proven over the years.

In an attempt to jump over one's head, a person often slows down, which is why indecision and uncertainty appear in one's current activities. But when there is an understanding that the hero will have to participate in a chain of events - components of a single thing, then the picture will form by itself. Behind you will be completed stages that bring you closer to the completion of the ideological plan.

Increase your own productivity

There are many books with “recipes” for productivity. Finding literature of this kind will not be difficult. However, don't stop at theory, take time to practice.

Study yourself and your characteristics. Determine when you are most productive. Set aside one day for this. Commit:

• at what point do you feel a surge of strength;
• when you start to get tired;
• when you work in a flow of inspiration;
• at what point do concentration difficulties appear;
• when and why you get distracted.

After this experiment, make a personal biological calendar. It will make it easier to plan your day and choose the optimal time for important things.

Learn to look at the situation from the outside

Buried in routine and trifles, we lose understanding of the global goal. Work begins to seem meaningless to us, and the result is unattainable. At such moments, it is worth stopping and assessing whether completing current tasks is bringing you closer to the global goal. Yes? We are on the right track. No? It's time to change your plan of action.

By the way, in order to evaluate what is happening from the outside, it is important to be distracted from work from time to time. Try meditating. This way you can free your brain from routine and find effective and innovative solutions to current problems.

For dreams to one day turn into reality, you need to make some effort. To do this, you will need to clearly define your goals, divide them into small tasks and carry them out step by step. Try to optimize your work as much as possible and don’t give in to procrastination.

Original article: https://www.nur.kz/family/self-realization/1220864-kak-dostich-tseli-effektivnyye-sovety/