The Basics of Goal Setting

“Setting Goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” -Tony Robbins

Effective goal-setting is important in most aspects of life. Without goals, you lack focus and direction. These can be goals for a team, a business, or a personal journey, but knowing how to write them is a must-have skill. Efficient and effective goal-setting will set you and your team up for future success.

When we think of goal setting, most of us think of something that is off in the future somewhere. For example, someone might say, "My goal is to lose weight." Now, this is not a bad goal to have, but it is lacking specifics. To lose weight would be nice, but how long do we have to complete the goal? How much weight? And are we doing hot yoga? There are unanswered questions, and they don’t hold us accountable with this type of "vague" goal-setting statement. Let’s fix that with a more efficient and effective approach to goal setting.

Let me take the example above: We want to lose weight, but how are we going to do it? What I want you to try is to break it down into smaller tasks that will help us achieve the overall goal of losing weight. Here is that goal broken down into some simple steps: First, I will sign up for a gym membership. Then, I will go to the gym three times a week. Lastly, while at the gym, my workouts will be focused so I can achieve this goal by a certain date.

So, our new goal statement would look something like this: Sign up for a gym membership and perform a focused workout three times a week to lose 10 pounds by March 2023. Writing goals in this format allows you to tackle small tasks that help you achieve the overall goal.

Note: When it comes to the accountability of checking off these tasks, we need to be firm with ourselves. If we make it to the gym and do not perform a focused workout, we won’t count this as one of the three for the week. To help you remember this goal-setting technique, just remember ACT:

Accountable: Create goals that hold you accountable to them.

Clear: Your goals have to be clear. Make them as detailed as needed but leave the "vague" statements behind.

Time-based: Don’t give yourself forever to achieve goals, or they won’t get done.

This method will help you write more efficient and effective goals.