LOWER your standards for GREATER success; 7 step process
Have you ever set goals that never materialized?
Maybe you started the New Year with the best of intentions? This is the year, 20XX is going to be the one. I’m going to:
- get my venture off the ground
- sort out my finances
- get in shape
- perfect my relationship
- get the promotion
- learn that new language or instrument
I’ve got some news for you, you’re unlikely to get any of them done let alone all of them. By having all these great expectations you have effectively said, you’re going to climb a mountain in each of the many different areas of your life in the next 12 months without a map.
There’s nothing wrong with ambition, but most goals and resolutions set the bar so high that at some point you will look up at all these peaks you said you would conquer and become so overwhelmed that you will give up. The 17th of January is dedicate “Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day” for a reason.
Of those that at set a target, only 8% end up achieving their desired outcome which is probably being generous. That is assuming they are not part of the 40% who don’t even bother goal setting yet cannot understand why they are still in the same place come December.
Why not lower your expectations or standards and get some smaller wins under your belt. This gets the process started, builds your confidence and gathers momentum so that you can move on to grander outcomes.
The best get it wrong too
“Even the best fall down sometimes” — Howie Day
You’re not alone when it comes to big thinking though. High achievers and elite performers sometimes over reach as well. During the 1992 US Olympic Trials, Dan O’Brien, world champion and favorite for Olympic gold in the decathlon, tried to go too big too soon.
He wanted to break the decathlon pole vault world record and he was certainly more than capable. But he literally set the bar too high and failed in all his attempts. He didn’t get a small win or register any score in the event, and in so doing, failed to gain any momentum to push on to something bigger. Not only did he fail to break the record, he didn’t even make the Olympic team.
It’s not your fault
“There are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic timelines” — Brian Tracy
Firstly, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s not your fault. As humans we all suffer from overestimation or underestimation biases. We overestimate our abilities to complete tasks and underestimate how long they will take. Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky even coined a phrase for this phenomenon called ‘Planning Fallacy’.
Secondly, most people haven’t learned the process of planning property. They haven’t given themselves enough time or they believe they can do it on their own without any outside assistance.
What’s more is that you are constantly fed a line by both traditional and social media that you can do, be and have it all in 12 months or less. We look at our peers selectively edited lives on Facebook or news stories about ‘overnight’ successes. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that.
Here are a few steps below to help you on your path.
#1 Get really specific
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Most goals and New Year’s resolutions are lists of preferred outcomes with no thought given to how they are going to be achieved. One of the most common examples is ‘Get in shape’.
This is too vague for a start and means very little. My overweight friend put this into clear perspective when he responded to his wife’s request to get in shape by exclaiming that ‘round is a shape’!
#2 Select the right metrics
“The more specific and measurable your goal, the more quickly you will be able to identify, locate, create, and implement the use of the necessary resources for its achievement” — Charles J Givens
If you do not use the correct metric to measure progress you will doom yourself to failure.
If you used ‘losing 20lbs’ as your target you have indeed set a specific goal. However there will likely be some element of exercise involved. You will subsequently increase muscle mass and, as a result, increase your weight. This will produce outcomes that seemingly take you away from your stated goal.
Figure out what metrics to track. Instead of weight loss, use percentage body fat. If you are in business, track profits not revenue. For personal finance, look at how much money you keep, not how much you earn. This will help avoid the frustration of putting in the effort without receiving the ‘results’ you desire.
#3 Break down the plan
“First you write down your goal; your second job is to break down your goal into a series of steps, beginning with steps which are absurdly easy” — Fitzhugh Dobson
Most goals can be broken down into multiple smaller and much more manageable tasks. By breaking tasks down, you are creating the map to your chosen peak.
If increase business profits was part of a more specific goal, you can break it down to include 1) increasing sales and 2) reducing expenses.
You can break 1)increase sales in to a) increase the number of transactions, b) increase the size of the transactions, c) increase the frequency of transactions.
To increase a) number of transactions you can i) increase the number of new clients ii) increase the transactions with current clients. Continue this process by continually asking yourself ‘how can I do that?’ until ‘start’ is your answer.
!!WARNING!!
“What is easy to do is also easy not to do” — Jim Rohn
When you break your goals down to individual steps, the temptation is to believe that there will be no major consequences if that step it not taken today. Do not delay and continually move forward, this is the difference between success and failure.
#5 Shrink your deadlines
“A goal is a dream with a deadline” — Napoleon Hill
This may seem counter to the opening paragraphs of this article however this applies to the individual steps that you control, not the ultimate objective which you don’t.
By giving yourself a deadline you are avoiding the temptation to continually work on a task with ever diminishing returns. Nothing will ever be perfect and as Parkinson’s Law states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. If you give yourself a month to complete a project, it will get done in a month. Yet If you give yourself a week somehow that same project will get done in a quarter of the time.
Use Parkinson’s Law to your advantage by cutting deadlines 20–50%. You’ll be surprised how this can dramatically affect your progress
#6 Get Started
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”- Chinese Proverb
Jadav Payeng (aka The Forest Man of India) witnessed the destructive nature of deforestation first hand. He made a decision to plant a tree every day so as to recreate at least part of the once thriving forest.
Over the course of decades and with continual action he has transformed the barren landscape of Majuli Island into a forest that some calculate to be almost twice the size of Central Park.
He didn’t think about growing a massive wildlife reserve. He simply focused on the action steps for each day and started. Click here to view his story
#7 Celebrate the wins (& losses)
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn” — John C Maxwell
There are days when you do a really good job. You complete what you set out to do, you make progress or you overcome a challenge. Yet many don’t really notice these achievements. One of the biggest mistakes people make is waiting for the final outcome before deciding to either celebrate or commiserate. By recognizing the small wins you will gain confidence, feel more capable and it will spur you on to bigger wins.
Equally important is to re-evaluate when things don’t go according to plan. If you don’t get the outcome you desired, take a step back and ask yourself what you could have done differently and how does this change your goal. As Richard Branson says ‘there are no failures, only feedback’.
To summarise
Do not suffer the fate of the majority of people. When setting your goals, make sure you have a detailed, easy to follow plan with the right measures and deadlines. Take the steps and remember to celebrate the wins. Stack the deck in your favor and if you don’t get the desired outcome, at least get the learning and re-evaluate.
Final note
The decathlete Dan O’Brien I mentioned above, did eventually go onto qualify for the Olympics and achieved his goal of winning gold at the 1996 games. It just took him a little longer then he previously expected.
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References:
http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/28/sports/olympics-o-brien-fails-to-make-olympic-decathlon-team.html?mcubz=1
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