Why are goals important?
You live a reactive life running on autopilot when you let whatever life throws your way as the guiding force as opposed to consciously deciding and making space for the things you want. Being too busy to determine what you want out of life or using laziness as an excuse to not act turns your dreams into fantasy as you let multiple opportunities slip by. When you don’t know what you want, it’s hard to make the best use of every situation and easy to let distractions eat away into your mental energy and time.
For example:
Sitting in front of a TV as opposed to using the time to exercise.
Engaging in idle gossip with your neighbor instead of taking the time to clean up your closet.
Browsing through social media feeds when the same time can be put to use in cooking a healthy meal.
When you haven't consciously prioritized exercising, staying organized or eating healthy as your goal, you not only miss achieving them, you assume the worst "It's the best I can do!" You fail to achieve what matters to you because you never take the time to define what is it that you want.
You can't live intentionally without a clear future self in mind. Consciously adopted goals are not only important, they are the only way to lead the life you want. Goals make it possible to turn your desires into a reality. They give life and meaning to your dreams.
As Nikki Giovanni, world-renowned writer, poet, and social commentator puts it “I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure, but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.”
Goals are important because they determine where you end up—they are necessary to act with intention and make decisions that are aligned with the person you wish to become. Setting goals is a time consuming activity but it's something that's absolutely worth your time.
Don't leave your life to chance. Make it count by starting with defining your goals.
What are goals vs systems?
Goals tell you where you want to go and what you wish to achieve in the future. Systems tell you about the things you need to do to get there. They are the processes you put in place to achieve your goals.
Goals give you a sense of direction, but by themselves, they aren't sufficient. To give life to your goals, you need sustainable and repeatable systems—systems that stick, that work, and that gives you useful feedback so that you are not blind to your own progress. You will fail to achieve your goals if you spend too much time planning your goals but not enough time designing your systems.
As James Clear says "Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress. Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference."
Goals definitely play a big role in defining what you can achieve but it's ultimately your systems that determine the outcomes you accomplish and where you end up.
For example:
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Your goal is to eat healthy. Your system is organizing your meal plans with healthy options each day.
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Your goal is to become a public speaker. Your system is the practice you follow each week.
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Your goal is to become a swimmer. Your system is the training schedule each week.
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Your goal is to become a leader in your organization. Your system is the work you do each day to build those leadership skills.
In summary,
Goals = Results you want to achieve
Systems = Process used to achieve those results
Why is it important to break down goals?
When you target a big goal, handling the sheer volume and complexity of the task is bound to be scary. Thinking about all the work ahead of you can overwhelm you and prevent you from even getting started. Robert Maurer states “Radical change is like charging up a steep hill—you may run out of wind before you reach the crest, or the thought of all the work ahead makes you give up no sooner than you’ve begun.”
He suggests another path altogether “one that winds so gently up the hill that you hardly notice the climb. It is pleasant to negotiate and soft to tread. And all it requires is that you place one foot in front of the other.”
Breaking down your goals into small daily actions is important because they turn off your brain’s alarm system that resists and fears change, keeps you engaged and focused on the task in the present, and leads to continual improvement—three essential components to build confidence and achieve your goals.
How can I make sure the goals I adopt are right for me?
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, writes in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big “Successful people don’t wish for success; they decide to pursue it. And to pursue it effectively, they need a system. Success always has a price, but the reality is that the price is negotiable. If you pick the right system, the price will be a lot nearer to what you’re willing to pay.”
To adopt the right goals you need the right system. When you have the right systems in place, you no longer daydream about fulfilling your goals, you actually do the work required to achieve them. Right systems urge you to take action and consistent action leads to positive habits that reinforce the identity of the person you wish to become.
This planner provides a step-by-step process for setting goals that matter to you. It then helps you break them down into concrete action steps so that you know what to do next at every step. Tracking progress and continually reviewing will be part of your process because you can't improve if you don't know how you're doing or what you can do to get better.
What's the right number of goals to have?
Any goal-setting advice that directs you to focus on one big goal at a time is unsound. The idea that every waking moment in your life should be guided by one top-level goal isn't desirable.
Does having a career mean you cannot be a great spouse?
Does paying attention to your family mean you should forget about your health?
These goals aren't conflicting. They are necessary to build the life you may desire.
Are these goals easy to achieve? Absolutely not. They need a little bit of planning, but with the right systems in place, it's absolutely possible to achieve them all.
When it comes to identifying the right number of goals to have, there's no right and wrong answer. The number of goals you decide depends on what you want and what's right for you. However, I wouldn't advise setting too many goals either—they take away your ability to focus on what really matters to you. Think about 3-4 life areas that are most important to you and set a top-level goal for each one of them.
What if I have conflicting or competing goals?
The biggest obstacle to achieving goals isn't not knowing what you want, it is letting distractions—new goals that compete and conflict with your existing goals—get in the way of your plan.
For example:
Your goal to spend time with your family can conflict with your desire to spend time partying with your friends.
Your goal to stay healthy can compete with your desire to enjoy food.
Allowing these unwarranted temptations to interfere distracts you from your goals. They make you diverge and wander into the weeds instead of staying on your path.
Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker said “Your input determines your outlook. Your outlook determines your output, and your output determines your future.”
In other words, once you decide what you want, you have to pay attention to everything you let into your life—the information you consume, people you surround yourself with, and even the way you design your environment.
To ensure conflicting and competing goals don't get in the way, do this:
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Consciously shoot down goals that demand your attention and stand in the way of achieving goals that matter.
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Create an environment that matches your goals by filling it with productive cues and eliminating unproductive ones. For example, if you want to eat healthy, organize your household with healthy food options to serve as a cue for making healthy choices.
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Get rid of toxic people from your life or those who stand in the way of your dreams.
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Surround yourself with people who support your goals or have similar goals as yours.
Is it fine to change my goals?
Your goals aren’t set in stone. Life isn’t perfect and so are your plans. Ideally, your goals will require you to go to the drawing board many times.
Your top level goals may remain the same while the goals you wish to achieve every year or the steps you decide to take to get there will need many iterations. Once you put your ideas into action, some things may not work or you may find other ideas that seem more promising. You need to be flexible to make adjustments instead of sticking to a plan that clearly doesn't work.
Changing goals isn't a bad thing as long as you aren't quitting for the wrong reasons—fear of not achieving your goal, procrastinating and then deciding to give up, finding something too hard to do or more complex than you originally anticipated. Remember, learning and adapting is the only way to grow.
How can I use goal planner?
The Amazing Goal Planner will help you achieve your life's dreams and desires. It has been designed to address a key problem that all of us face—not clearly defining what matters to us and breaking it down into concrete action steps.
The Amazing Goal Planner provides a step-by-step process to not only set goals but also put them into action by integrating them into your daily, weekly and monthly plans.
It comes with:
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Self reflection exercise to inquire what matters to you and use them as inputs to set your life goals.
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52 undated weekly and 12 monthly spreads for setting goals.
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Weekly, monthly and yearly reflection exercises to determine what you're doing well and the changes you need to make to do even better.
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Daily and weekly goals check-in to motivate you to stick to your goals.
For any questions on the product, send your query to products@techtello.com.
How to create life vision?
Consider these life areas—family & friends, career & business, personal development, finance, health & fitness, spiritual, community and relationships. Some might be very important and others may be less relevant to you.
Think about your personal life philosophy for each of the life areas that matter to you. Your life philosophy determines who you are and what you stand for—a lens that guides all your thoughts, words, and actions. Your life philosophy guides you to stay resilient and on track even during your most difficult times and setbacks. It acts as a compass and gives meaning to all the goals below it.
Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, puts it this way “The power of knowing your personal philosophy comes from knowing yourself. When you are clear on what’s important to you and what you stand for, you are equipped to handle life. This “knowing” gives you strength and conviction to deal with life’s challenges. And your philosophy allows you to believe and trust in yourself."
To create your life vision, ask yourself these questions:
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What changes you’d like to make? (What’s important to you)?
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Why do you want to make these changes?
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What costs are you willing to pay to make this happen?
Your life vision must be something that you intrinsically desire and instead of outcome based goals, it should be about your identity—a person you wish to become.
Define your life vision for each important area of your life.
How to set yearly goals?
Once you have your life vision (top goals for important areas of your life) identified, the next step is to define the concrete outcomes you wish to achieve.
Instead of creating three or five year plans which are too complicated to maintain and track, set yearly goals—specific things you want to achieve each year.
However, out of the 100s of things to do, how do you know which goal to prioritize each year?
To set yearly goals, do this for each top level goal:
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Write down 5 goals that align with your top level goal.
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To each of these goals, assign a score of 1-5 on a scale of importance with 1 being the least important and 5 being the most important. Next, assign a score of 1-5 on a scale of interest with 1 being the least interesting and 5 being the most interesting.
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Pick the goal with the highest score on the importance and interest scale as your main goal for the year. This is your long-term 1-year goal.
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If multiple goals add up to the same score, just pick any one and get started.
What are goal milestones and how to set them?
Once you have 1-year goal defined, you have a sense of direction you need to take. But the enormity and the complexity of the task may prevent you from getting started.
A big goal is not only difficult to execute, it's extremely hard to measure:
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How do you know if you're making sufficient progress?
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How do you keep track of the remaining work to achieve your goal?
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How do you learn and improve every step of the way?
This is where milestones help.
Milestones are checkpoints in your goal that help measure your progress and ensure that you stay on track. They give you an opportunity to review—what's working and what's not working—to take corrective action and do better next time.
Break down your 1-year goal into milestones where each milestone defines a significant step you need to accomplish to successfully execute and achieve your 1-year goal. This is how to do it:
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Divide your 1-year goal into four 3-month milestones.
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Identify things you need to accomplish every 3 months and the order in which you need to do them. This will enable you to think about dependency and other constraints of your goal.
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Write them down for each yearly goal.
How to set monthly goals?
Defining your milestones is a big step. It gives you specific things to focus on in the next 3 months. However, 3 months is still a long timeframe in which you can get so much done.
To make the most out of these 3 months, it is important to break down your goal even further. A monthly strategy will help you think a level deep—what tasks to work on, what challenges you may face and how you can overcome them to achieve your goals.
For each milestone:
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Set monthly goals.
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Create your todo list with specific tasks you need to do.
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Use the calendar view to keep track of those tasks across weeks and days. You can also use the calendar to keep track of other events and appointments to get clarity on where your time is spent.
Here are some tips for a good todo list:
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Include every task, no matter how big or small.
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Stack them in the order they need to be done.
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Be as specific as possible, don't be vague.
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Categorize them into tasks you need to do yourself and tasks you can delegate.
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Keep it flexible by incorporating daily learning and making changes as you go.
How to set weekly goals?
To set weekly goals, you need to break down monthly goals into specific tasks to do each week.
By defining weekly action steps, you're more likely to follow-through on your plan and stick to your goals.
To do this:
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Break down your monthly strategy into tasks you need to accomplish each week.
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List the top 5 goals for the week that are non-negotiable and deserve your special attention.
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When creating tasks, be as specific as possible. Vague goals are difficult to measure and accomplish.
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At the end of each week, review how you did—what were your biggest accomplishments, what worked, what didn't work and how can you do better next time.
Peter Drucker, management guru once said, "What's measured improves." This is true for everything in life. Whether you are trying to accomplish a goal, build a new skill, or work on a difficult task, without the attitude to learn, adapt and make corrections along the way, you cannot improve. A great way to do this is to implement a strong feedback loop in your process. The improvement plan provided with the weekly action steps in this planner will help you do just that.
Repeating it every week will give good insights into your process and help you make changes to align your effort with the goals you wish to achieve.
The planner also comes with monthly and yearly reflection exercises to help you determine what's going well and the changes you need to put in place to improve and do even better.
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