How To: The Guide to Setting Better Goals
The graphic above tells the story.
When you want to achieve something, there are always steps you need to take in order to make that “something” achievable. As asinine of a sentence as that was, it’s true.
Define a Goal
What have you wanted to accomplish but haven’t?
Goals can be personal or professional.
Ideally the goal will follow the S.M.A.R.T. method, but as you will learn by the end of this article, it won’t end up mattering.
For those curious, a smart goal is:
- Specific — Bad example: Get smarter. Good Example: Read five books this month.
- Measurable — You can measure how many books you have read in a month.
- Attainable/Achievable — It is achievable to read a book every six days.
- Realistic — Not only can you read a book every six days, it is not a huge time commitment.
- Time-bound — You have a month to achieve the goal. There is a deadline.
This framework makes you think through the goal, and get a better grasp of what it takes to accomplish it.
The next step is the important one.
Create a System
Welcome to my world. I love systems. The systems I love most are “dailies,” or a sequence of tasks you perform every day.
To achieve a goal, you should create a daily system.
Keeping with our example — to read five books a month you need to read one book every six days.
To read a book in six days without binge reading, you need to read every day.
How can you create a daily reading system?
Perhaps you could read for 30 minutes in the morning, and thirty minutes at night. At an average reading speed of 200 words per minute you will be reading 40 pages a day at this pace.
In six days you will have read 120 pages. If you are an average reader. Do you normally read 120 pages of a book in six days? If you don’t read that much then fuck the “five books in a month” goal and focus on the system of reading 30 minutes in the morning and thirty minutes at night.
Set an Achievable Target Date
Now that you are working to establish a system of reading every morning and night, your achievable target date has changed.
Your new achievable target date is six days from now, but with a different “achievable target.”
Your new achievable target is: Did I read every morning and every night? If the answer is yes, well done!
Follow the System Every Day
Now do it again.
If you forgot to read one night or every night, then read tonight and tomorrow morning.
Your system is to read morning and night. Do not worry about the number of pages read.
Eventually reading will become a habit, and it will be easy to pick up the book in the morning and at night. You will look forward to it. Also, you will start to read faster as your willpower stops being drained by simply picking up the book.
The Compounding Effect of Your Habit
The more consistent you are with your system turned habit, the more pages you will end up reading.
3 weeks in to this system you will likely have read more pages in the last 7 days then you did in the first 7.
You will now have finished a book, maybe two. If you’re especially diligent you might have read more. Good for you. Keep the system going.
You Move Closer to Your Goal
Read. Day in and day out.
The more pages you put behind you the closer you get to your goal. This section doesn’t really need to be written, as I covered it in the section before, but it’s a step in the infographic so I am writing it for consistency sake.
Your goal is achieved! Or Not.
At this point it doesn’t matter.
Your system is now in place and you have read more this month than any month you can remember. Your brain has been rewired to crave reading.
Your new habit can now be directed in many ways. What will you do with this new power? What knowledge will you uncover?
The System Continues to Produce Results
How many books have you read by now?
You’re a knowledge fiend! Are you focusing your reading towards a specific topic? Maybe to learn a new skill.
Or are your topics varied, allowing you to consume the knowledge of many subjects.
Read whatever you want. Honor the system and keep it going.
Define a Bigger Goal
Well my friend, we have reached the end. You either have a system of reading established, or you don’t.
You can now apply this system to any manner of goal. I’ll provide an example.
New Goal — Lose 15 pounds
Well, you’re a consistent reader now, so chances are you should read a few books about fitness and nutrition, to learn how to exercise and eat healthy.
Not only are you a reader, you are a creator of systems. How will you create a system for daily exercise and healthy eating?
The new you will read the books, acquire the knowledge, and take action to create the right systems.
The goal just lets you know what you want. The systems helps you get there.
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