5 Lessons I Learned About Effective Goal-Setting

"A goal properly set is halfway reached ." -Zig Ziglar

In his book titled Measure What Matters, John Doerr expands on a concept invented by Professor Andy Grover—the OKR (Objective and Key Results) system, a simple goal-setting system which works for huge teams or even individuals. The objectives are what we want to have accomplished and the key results are how to get them done—respectively, the “what” and the “how” of goal-setting. But before this can be done, we need to check if we are setting goals correctly. For that, we must answer the “why” of goal-setting. “People who combine their ambition to their passion to their purpose always develop a clear and compelling sense of why,” stated Doerr. Here are 5 key lessons I took away about effective goal-setting while reading Measure What Matters:

Lesson 1: Set goals that align with your passion.

The things we are passionate about in our lives are the things which fire us up and make us who we are. Taking the time to cultivate that passion brings us the innate happiness and fulfillment to our lives. But why do we really need things that make us passionate? Because they make us feel alive, energize us, and represent a core desire or need. Our hobbies and interests round us out and make us that much more interesting, and the same hobbies challenge us to improve and keep learning, keeping our brain sharper, healthier, and stronger. Our passions act as an anchor to our sense of why. Rely on intrinsic motivations like purposeful work and opportunities for growth.

Lesson 2: Commit to prioritizing.

One of the main reasons we do not stick to our goals is that we do not make them a priority. We often equate our self-worth with how busy our timeline looks for the day, which makes us overcommit to tasks which we truly don’t know if they are important or not. But at the same time, just because something is important does not make it a priority. Our priority should be doing a task that is important but also creates a big impact in our lives in the immediate future. To turn our goals into reality, we have to make the smaller objectives and routine tasks a priority in our lives. This is where knowing the sense of why comes into play—when you know your why, making the smaller steps to reach the bigger goal a priority becomes a lot easier.

Lesson 3: Find people working towards the same goals.

For many of our bigger goals, it becomes difficult to accomplish them on our own. Although it is possible to achieve high goals, they are much easier to attain if we use teamwork. Highly productive teams give as much as attention to how they work together as they do to their work task and results. In a company, this may translate to smashing departmental silos by connecting teams with horizontally shared outcomes because cross-functional operations enable quick and coordinated decisions. We often communicate frequently through informal conversations and learn from each other in a team. By having the help and the expertise of the right people around us, we can achieve our goals much faster. The chances of overall success are higher when we have the right support and motivation from like-minded people.

Lesson 4: Be accountable and flexible.

If we really want to make our passions a bigger part of our lives, we have to make ourselves accountable by sharing our goals with a few people. These people will have to be our biggest cheerleaders but also help us to stay true to our objectives. Accountability helps us build relationships, meet goals, and develop personally and professionally. Likewise, flexibility allows us to adapt to the challenges of the ever-changing world, and enables us to catch new opportunities. It makes sense that our purpose changes in accord with our maturity—the more we learn about the world around us along with the world within us, the more our beliefs change. This doesn’t mean our goals have to take a U-turn and drastically change—we have to make sure to tweak our methods to keep progressing.

Lesson 5: Reach for what may seem unattainable.

When setting goals, it is easy to put limits on ourselves. Sometimes we set limits because we want to be realistic (which is a good thing), but sometimes it is because we fear failure. While most of our goals should be reachable, a few of them should be unattainable. Those few goals will teach us that a natural byproduct of progress is some failure. Progress is not a linear path—in almost all cases, there may be times when the way is unclear and the perfect path is not available. We must make a choice and learn from that decision, whether the consequences are good or bad. By truly testing our hard work and determination, these ambitious goals will double our confidence and help us reach them.

These are just a few goal-setting lessons I’ve incorporated in my life so far, and Measure What Matters also goes further into the dynamics of the OKR system to incorporate it in global organizations. I will keep learning and sharing my knowledge, and I invite all readers to join me on this venture to propel our lives and achieve more goals together!