HOW TO SET GOALS
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO SET GOALS THAT WORK FOR YOU
Following week three where you should have understood your key reasons for setting goals, this week we will be giving you a step-by-step process that shows you exactly how to set goals that work for you.
Over years of trial and error, we’ve boiled down our goal setting to a simple five step framework. As with everything goal setting is about YOU and making sure you’re doing everything on your own terms, so whilst the main framework doesn’t change, it is set up to be dynamic and fluid, working with you and for you.
Over years of trial and error, we’ve boiled down our goal setting to a simple five step framework. As with everything goal setting is about YOU and making sure you’re doing everything on your own terms, so whilst the main framework doesn’t change, it is set up to be dynamic and fluid, working with you and for you.
STEP ONE - FIND YOUR FUTURE HAPPINESS
Goals should be set around attaining happiness or further happiness. When we set goals we often go by what others think, or what we assume we should be working towards (new car, new job, payrise) and we very rarely pay attention to what we actually need, or what would make our lives better. Here at Good Mornings we set goals with the distinct end result being Happiness. Whatever we’re working on, we are working on because we know it will improve our happiness and bring us joy. We don’t set economic goals (unless an economic gain would enable you to do more of what you love) because our main goal in life is to increase the ability to do things that bring us joy. To really understand what goals you should be setting you need to forget everything you know and focus on what will bring you happiness.
– If you could wake up and do one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
– What is something that you would do for free?
– When are you most at peace?
– When are you in your flow state?
– What feeling do you want to continue evoking?
– When are you at your best?
When you’ve answered some of these questions you will have an idea of what makes you happy. Now you need to think of a goal that you can get to which will enable you to do these things. We go into more detail including two exercises in our goal setting workshop, but this is a taster to get you thinking critically about the kind of goals you should be thinking about.
– If you could wake up and do one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
– What is something that you would do for free?
– When are you most at peace?
– When are you in your flow state?
– What feeling do you want to continue evoking?
– When are you at your best?
When you’ve answered some of these questions you will have an idea of what makes you happy. Now you need to think of a goal that you can get to which will enable you to do these things. We go into more detail including two exercises in our goal setting workshop, but this is a taster to get you thinking critically about the kind of goals you should be thinking about.
STEP TWO - IDENTIFY WHAT WILL GET YOU THERE
Now you know what happiness looks like for you, the next step is to identify the goal that will get you there. We use a really useful tool called our goal check template to make sure that we are setting goals not wishes. We’ll do a quick breakdown of that here but for the full version this is part of our goal setting course or a separate template that’s so simple to fill in and go.
– Start with a quick blurt of what you want to work on, write a sentence that feels like it covers what you want to achieve
– Think about why you’re working towards this, keep asking, three, four times.
– What is the endpoint of this goal. A new job, a new house?
– How will you feel when you reach this endpoint
– Now why again, what will you gain (you will now be able to think about any other gains for example higher confidence, more time due to a shorter commute)
– What happens if you don’t achieve this (what aspects of your life won’t change, or what will be negatively impacted)
– Can you see a path towards this
– Now state it retrospectively
THAT is your goal
– Start with a quick blurt of what you want to work on, write a sentence that feels like it covers what you want to achieve
– Think about why you’re working towards this, keep asking, three, four times.
– What is the endpoint of this goal. A new job, a new house?
– How will you feel when you reach this endpoint
– Now why again, what will you gain (you will now be able to think about any other gains for example higher confidence, more time due to a shorter commute)
– What happens if you don’t achieve this (what aspects of your life won’t change, or what will be negatively impacted)
– Can you see a path towards this
– Now state it retrospectively
THAT is your goal
STEP THREE - WORK BACKWARDS
Now you know what will make you happy and have your future state in mind, you need to work backwards from this.
– Start with your goal, your end state
– Think about the thing that immediately precedes this (final round of an interview, signing a contract) and write that down
– Repeat until the present day
– DO NOT think about the whole goal. Think about the state you are on. Once you have moved from the future state to the thing preceding, never think of the future state again, only focus on where you are in that step and what comes before; approach this outside of the context of the overall goal, and simply as moving from one step to another.
– Now you have written down each step, you now have your pathway to achieve your goal.
Good Mornings is about helping you to Grow Daily, with our goal setting frameworks we actually go one step further and introduces systems and tools that slot into your morning routine so that you are getting 1% better each day and easily achieving your goals
– Start with your goal, your end state
– Think about the thing that immediately precedes this (final round of an interview, signing a contract) and write that down
– Repeat until the present day
– DO NOT think about the whole goal. Think about the state you are on. Once you have moved from the future state to the thing preceding, never think of the future state again, only focus on where you are in that step and what comes before; approach this outside of the context of the overall goal, and simply as moving from one step to another.
– Now you have written down each step, you now have your pathway to achieve your goal.
Good Mornings is about helping you to Grow Daily, with our goal setting frameworks we actually go one step further and introduces systems and tools that slot into your morning routine so that you are getting 1% better each day and easily achieving your goals
STEP FOUR - ESTABLISH DAILY GROWTH
Goals work when you work on them. Those big scary goals that you’ve broken down into smaller steps are even more manageable if you add them into your daily routine one tiny task at a time. We go into a long form version of how you create daily practices based around the steps you need to take to reach your goals in our full goal setting course; but here is a quick breakdown of how you use process to establish daily growth towards your goals.
– look at your morning routine at the moment and where you have given yourself space to add one thing slowly
– look at your steps that you need to take to reach your goal. Where do things overlap? Where are things a commonality or a habit?
– what daily practice can you introduce which will grow you towards your goal and support your future happiness
– A great example of this is reading, or research. If part of your steps need learning or information you don’t currently have. A daily practice you can introduce is reading. This daily practice will then be fluid around whichever step you are in, but the practice of reading everyday will not only help you achieve your goals, but also grow daily.
– look at your morning routine at the moment and where you have given yourself space to add one thing slowly
– look at your steps that you need to take to reach your goal. Where do things overlap? Where are things a commonality or a habit?
– what daily practice can you introduce which will grow you towards your goal and support your future happiness
– A great example of this is reading, or research. If part of your steps need learning or information you don’t currently have. A daily practice you can introduce is reading. This daily practice will then be fluid around whichever step you are in, but the practice of reading everyday will not only help you achieve your goals, but also grow daily.
STEP FIVE - COMMIT
The biggest part of the process of setting goals is once you have them set, committing to them. Add them to a tracking template, write them in ink. This step in the process sets you up to achieve by creating the framework for commitment, consistency and accountability. So write those goals down, add them to your goal tracking template!
The process of goal setting can sometimes seem like ‘think of a goal and write it down’ there – you have a goal set. This framework ensures that you are setting goals that are on your own terms, for your own happiness and set in a way that gives you the proper foundation to achieve.
Check out our goal setting course, or goal setting template to take your goal setting process framework to the next level.
