5 Effective Goal-Setting Techniques

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Overview

Effective goal setting is a crucial skill to live a fulfilling life. It helps you manifest what you strive for, the things you stand for and become the person you dream to be. Effective goals can:

Effective goals can

Technique 1 - SMART GOALS

• Specific: Clearly defined
• Measurable: Progress is trackable
• Achievable: Realistic and attainable
• Realistic: Practical and relevant
• Time-bound: Has a deadline

What needs to be accomplished? Who’s responsible for it? What steps need to be taken to achieve it? Look at the number you are trying to target, and be specific about this number. Words like “improve, decrease, change, increase” are not measurable, you must define by **how much, “**grow by 1000 users by the end of 20 days, sell 3 cupcakes over the next week”. It’s best to have a number and a timeline.

Each of these goals needs to be realistic. If you say “sell 1 million books by the end of 1 week”, this is not realistic if you have 0 customers. A more realistic goal is to “sell my first 5 books over the next week”.

Technique 2 - HARD GOALS

• Heartfelt: Emotionally connected
• Animated: Visualize achievement
• Required: Relate it to a necessary task
• Difficult: Increases sense of achievement

Outline at least 3 reasons you want to work on this goal (could be anything). Think about the outcome after you follow through with this goal, is it what you want? What’s your roadmap and timeline — the required tasks to complete to reach your goal? What are some skills you’ll need to develop to achieve this goal? Think about how you will learn these skills.

Technique 3 - WOOP GOALS

• Wish - Define an exciting goal
• Outcome: Visualize achievement
• Obstacle: Identify obstacles
• Plan: Solution to obstacles

What’s something that makes you excited? Makes your heart race when you think about it? Close your eyes and imagine the outcome once you achieve this exciting feat. What does your world look like? Think about the biggest obstacle to achieving your goal. Outline all the obstacles you can face and rank them. Plan and think about how you will overcome these obstacles, and strategize. Think about the people who can help you and the resources around you that you can leverage.

Technique 4 - MICRO GOALS

• Micro: break it down into smaller tasks

A goal that is so small and short that you can achieve it without significant effort. The point is to build momentum toward your larger goal. Momentum is everything in life. It’s like a rolling ball. The more you have it, the faster you grow. Once you stop, it takes an increased amount of effort to start building this momentum once again. So each micro-goal must add to your momentum, and little by little, over time, you will find yourself on top of the mountain without even realizing it.

Technique 5 - One Word Goals

• Choose a single word to represent your goal

Combine this technique with other techniques in this article. The single word is a simple and memorable motivation driver to achieve your goal.

Conclusion

All these goal-setting techniques are interchangeable and can be combined to provide a more tailored approach to your preference.

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