Dice Song

The Art of Goal Setting

Duncan -

I've always been wary of when I've heard of aggressive goal setting as being key to high-achievement (whatever that means). But I'm going to give it a go.

Goal Skeptic

Goal-setting in a constructed manner has always been something that eluded me. I've connected them to entreprenuers, athletes or people who put success before at the cost of everything else in life.

New Year's resolutions have always been my example. They seem so arbitrary and made because others are doing it. Most are discarded after a week and the rest after a month.

I've always had a goal or two in mind to aim for. But they were rarely voiced and tended to be general like "learn Spanish" or "write a blog".

But now it's time for a change.

Leonie Speaks

One of my regular podcast listens is Leonie Dawson, who has hundreds of goals. She talks about the difference they have made in getting her where she wants to be as a creative.

It was listening to a recent podcast that tied in with my quarterly review and I decided to give goal-setting a go. I decided to do some research and do things my own way, adding a few goals each week.

Goals Basics

I did a little looking around and went over three articles from Very Well Mind, Leonie Dawson  and Mind Tools. Then I thought about what would work for me.

What I'm using are these

  • Make the goals concrete. "I want to achieve level B2 in Spanish" instead of "I want to improve my Spanish"
  • A mix of related short term and long term goals
  • Make short term goals achievable and time-limited.
  • Be ambitious with the longer term ones.
  • Define the goals and write them down
  • Review the goals regulary

A Goals Plan

I decided to go with 36-48 goals, which I'll fill out over several weeks. I'll use the following system.

  • For a particular area I'll set Bronze, Silver and Gold goals. The bronze and silver will be shorter term, achievable and time-bound. The Gold will be the longer-term end goal.
  • I'll add these 3-12 a week until I've got to the 36-48 range.
  • Organise and keep track of them on a Trello board. As I use it every day already.
  • Review them every three months when I do a quarterly review.
  • Review some of them each week and record ones I've achieved.

I'll split them over blogs, languages, hobbies, finance and roleplaying generators. Plus anything else that makes sense.

I'll keep track of the ones achieved and review those once a year. Instead of deleting them as I usually would. Try to enjoy the wins.

Finishing Up

I'm still unsure about goal-setting but I'll give it a go!

Find me on Twitter. On Ko-Fi. On Instagram.

How do you organise your goals?