Which mountain will you conquer in 2017?

Mark Zuckerberg just completed his 2016 challenge by building an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant to control lights, speakers, cameras, temperature, etc in his home. It is amazing that he was able to do this while still running Facebook, a ~350 billion dollar company. He did similar challenges in prior years such as reading a book every other week, meeting a new person everyday, learning to speak Mandarin, being a vegetarian (or only eating meat if he killed the animal himself). As much intriguing as these are, it’s a good time for everyone to now reflect on 2016 and assess what went well, what did not go well and most importantly what you should focus on next year, besides the mundane chores of life. I will share my thoughts on why setting up goals is important, how to set goals and how to achieve those.

Why set goals?

1. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” — Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland. If you don’t set a goal, you are not thinking of a destination. Imagine getting in a car and just start driving without thinking where to go! How often do you do that? If you are choosing not to pick a destination, then you are giving up the control on your future. You are letting other people or nature to determine your destiny. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves” — William Shakespeare. We must actively choose and work towards our destiny. We must take control of our own destiny. We must create our own future. As Ralph W. Emerson says, “we are the builders of our fortune”.
2. Because Google does it. They set goals and measure progress throughout the year. Not just Google, pretty much all the companies follow goal setting process. When you need consistent performance, you must set goals for the future and work towards achieving them. Measure and monitor them periodically to stay on track. Google or any other established company does not leave its future to chance or external forces. They set goals, create plans and execute them.
3. You don’t want to drift along. If you are not actively steering your ship, then you are choosing to either a) stay where you are, or b) get carried away by the wind or ocean current to take you wherever it goes. You may not be happy with where your ship ends up when you wake up. Not having to think about goals or just winging it is easy. There wont be must resistance. But “path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers” — Henry D. Thoreau. Achieving something worthwhile is hard and gratifying. It takes goal setting, planning and actively working towards achieving it.

How to set goals?

Now that you have committed to setting goals, how do you actually pick goals? Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART). Be clear and as specific as possible. Don’t be vague. If you are keeping them vague, then either you are not serious or you are just pretending and “cya”. The goal should be measurable in some quantity. It should not be like “I want to lose some weight”. Give it a number so that you can measure and monitor to keep you on track. The goal should be realistic and achievable. If not, you will not believe in yourself. You may see the goal being so far away that you may give up in the middle. The goal also should be bounded by time. Otherwise you don’t have urgency and you will procrastinate. One example goal could be “I would like to lose 24 pounds by the end of 2017”.

How to achieve the goals?

Not all goals you set may be achievable. But you can do a few things to increase the likelihood of achieving them.

1. Publicize. Just like Zuckerberg writes about his goal for the year at the beginning of the year publicly in a blog post, you should write a blog post about your goal or announce it publicly to your friends. Then you will work hard to not let your pride down. Even if you are falling of the tracks, your friends can nudge you back on to tracks. When you are feeling low, they can cheer for you and inspire you.
2. Break it down. You can’t vault to the top of a mountain in one leap. But you can reach the top of the mountain by climbing one step at a time. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones” — Confucius. So break down your big goal into small intermediate goals and start chipping away as the time progresses. E.g. set a goal to lose 2 pounds every month. You will get to celebrate incremental wins, keep up the momentum without staring at the tall mountain in front of you and become petrified.
3. Measure and monitor. You should periodically measure your progress and make course corrections as needed. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” — Peter Drucker. E.g. if you are trying to lose weight and you don’t have a measuring scale, then you will be in for a big surprise at the end. Instead, if you measure your weight daily and you notice that you have gained a pound, then you can skip a meal or exercise a bit more to get back on track. Store your progress (e.g. save it in a fitness app) and see the progress chart periodically and course correct as needed.

Achieving something new and big is hard. But it is not impossible. It is easy to come up with reasons for not committing to doing something hard. Zuckerberg could have said — I am too busy & I have no time, or I am accomplished & I don’t want to do the dirty work, or I am getting old & I would rather spend time relaxing. But he didn’t. That is what great people do. That is what separates contenders from pretenders. They are willing do make the tough choices, set the right priorities and be committed. Perhaps you have always had in the back of your mind to get a six-pack, get a promotion, learn a new language, become a better public speaker, become an artist, become a coder, or spend more time with your kids. Whatever it is, think hard about it. How badly do you want it? Are you willing to commit to it? Are you ready to put in the hard work? If you are, there is nothing that can stop you. Go get’em. You can do it!

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