Parameters of ideal goals
If you found out your mistakes in the previous section, then you don’t need to get upset. It’s totally fine to make mistakes. Especially in such a complex process as goal setting. Minimizing the number of errors will bring the formulation of goals closer to the ideal. What should be the ideal goal so that everything is clear, transparent, you’re full of motivation, and there is something to raise a glass of wine for? This question was answered by scientists Gary Latham and Edwin Locke. These guys did everything for us and saved you years of life. They studied 35 years of goal-setting research [link] and deduced the five most important properties of an ideal goal. In their opinion, the ideal goal should have concreteness, ambition, publicity, feedback and controllability.
1. Concreteness.
It has been proven that people who set specific goals achieve more results. This parameter is very well known thanks to the SMART method. Its first parameter is “concreteness” (“specific”). But you remember about the nuance with the deadline and the place where you haven’t been yet. The point is not to be as specific as possible, but to understand what needs to be achieved, what is the point in this, and how you will check that the goal has been achieved.
2. Ambitions.
Goals should be complex. And it’s giving us a headache. We are simplifying everything here, and suddenly we need to set difficult goals. But it is important to understand that a difficult and an impossible goal are different things. Complexity affects the achievement of the goal positively. A difficult goal is a feasible goal that you have not yet achieved, but it completely depends on your actions and influence (what you can have influence on). A complex goal generates more effort than a simple goal. If you move towards it in the right segments, then it will be a source of motivation, since you will not see objective reasons for failure, but the result will be visible on the horizon.
3. Publicity.
Very often this property is exploited in different courses. The organizers put people in groups, force them to share their goals or report to the curator. It makes sense. Research has proven that public promises increase the likelihood of achieving a goal. Although I believe that if there is no motivation, then no matter who you promise to go out for a run in the morning, you can easily give up and continue to sleep. Especially if they are strangers who you promise to. It can work better with friends and like-minded people. They can play an important role as an incentive and poke a stick at your personal responsibility. For some people at the beginning of the journey, this is very important.
4. Feedback.
Feedback helps to monitor progress and positively influences your enthusiasm. Therefore, it is important to plan the achievement of goals in order to avoid mistakes that will make feedback periods long. A year for feedback is a lot. Therefore, goals for a year without intermediate stages are a bad idea, which can undermine your self — esteem and drive enthusiasm into negative territory. Since the initial enthusiasm is not enough and there will be no source for its production. It is necessary to organize task management in such a way that feedback cycles are regular.
5. Controllability.
A property that cannot belong to a fuzzy or impracticable goal. The controllability of a goal is like a clutch in a car, only for its ambitiousness. You need to learn how to keep it at a certain level, so as not to stall and smoothly start moving. If the goal is too difficult and gets out of control, then our beloved fragile motivation and enthusiasm will suffer. It is necessary to control the efforts that will be allocated to achieve the goal at each step. The challenge and the sense of control must be in balance to ensure controlled complexity and not to experience stress. It’s not easy and will come with experience, as well as driving skill.
If the goal has such properties, it means that it was possible to avoid all mistakes. All methods of setting goals, which are called abbreviations, somehow proceed from these basic properties. There is no need to perceive them as the ultimate truth and 100% instructions for action. You can use them as a filter to check goals for the necessary properties. I have tried many methods, and I have formed my own set. Over time, I have formed my own way of thinking in relation to goals and their control. Despite the fact that I have several tools and methods, I do not break everything down describing each tool. I use some tools as a template, others as a filter, and others as a prism to look at from a different angle. Below I will tell you about my approach. These are only my thoughts and my experience. My goal is to show how I do it. I will be very glad if something is suitable for you, but the main thing is to understand the principles so that you can experiment yourself and assemble an approach for yourself.
