The art of setting & accomplishing goals

With this one, I complete 10 articles on this platform. Before I get into the topic for today, let me take a moment to thank you all for making me want to keep doing this. The kind of response and encouragement you all have blessed me with, has given me the zeal to explore, research, think & grow and I am very eager to tread along this path to find what more this journey holds for me. Thank You all for letting me know the specifics that you all liked and recommending me topics that you would like to read my thoughts on, it was a great exercise getting to know unexplored sides of myself too.

Getting back to this topic at hand... I chose this one because I wanted my 10th article to be something that played a crucial role in getting me regular at writing and many other tasks I have pursued during the year. This has been instrumental in making me a better and organised person. Also, I think it’s perfectly timed because all of us have recently been through or are going through this phase at work – Goal Setting. We lay great emphasis on goals related to our workplace because we can observe tangible and immediate outcomes that accompany the accomplishment of these goals. But what about those goals that bear intangible benefits, that cannot immediately be measured in terms of materialistic profits and losses?

Through this article I share how I set realistic, exciting & ambitious goals and steps to accomplish them in different spheres of life. As workplace goal-setting takes care of itself through a structured performance management system, I am going to avoid delving into that aspect (though this is equally applicable to that setting too). I am attempting to speak about goal setting in aspects that are just as important but are neglected. My experience says, goal setting and accomplishment is a 4 step process which is as follows and I will be explaining them with relevant examples

Step 1: List down the buckets in which you want to progress throughout the year

I would suggest you to pick 4 to 5 aspects (bucket) of your life you really wish to bring about change in the entire year. Though this number may seem lower in the beginning, the depth under each of these buckets can get overwhelming.Following is a list of areas that I have chosen to focus on this year –

a)   Career – it is very important to understand that a career is beyond your current workplace, it includes skill building, networking, education etc.

b)   Financial – investments and management

c)    Creativity – For me its writing and dancing

d)   Fitness – will always feature among my goals for the rest of my life

Step 2: Determine a broad level goal or Motto under each bucket

While doing this, remember to account for drastic changes in lifestyle you foresee (moving cities and jobs) and always remember to go easy on at least one of the buckets

a)   Career – Since, I have recently started a new job, my goal was to understand my role well and ensure quality and timely deliverable. At the same time, understanding the dynamic field that I belong too, its necessary to constantly update myself. So the goal is to stay abreast and find a course to delve deeper into.

b)   Financial – As I am living independently for the first time ever, my basic goal is to ensure timely bill payments, maintain continuous investments and X amount of savings by the end of the year.

c)    Creativity – The last two areas are my most focus driven areas. Somethings that I have been procrastinating for years. So I decided to set tough end goals in these areas. The broad goal for writing is to start my own blog and stay regular on LinkedIn too. The broad goal for dancing is to initiate degrees in Bharatnatyam and get better at belly dancing.

d)   Fitness – This year I began with getting regular with exercise – run regularly, lift and incorporate yoga

Step 3: Set medium, short and immediate term goals (Monthly, Weekly and Daily)

While it is great to keep in mind the end goal, it is totally practical to modify and adapt basis each month and day. For example, some months may be very demanding at work and you may not be able to focus on creativity to a great extent. Account for those months, ensure flexibility and compensate in other months. While doing this, do not forget to determine which buckets are non-negotiable and require delegation or automation. For example, Fitness is a non-negotiable bucket that needs to feature in the long, medium, short and immediate goals.

A really good idea is to use a printable calendar to jot down your monthly goals for each bucket in different colors (you can use an excel sheet too). For your daily goals you can maintain a journal (or a dedicated notebook) or online tools. Also, set some time at the beginning to each month to set your monthly goals and a dedicated time each week to set your weekly and broad-level daily goals. I dedicate the end of each month to plan for the next month and a Friday or preferably Sunday for planning my week (honestly, 30 minutes each week takes off the clutter and keeps stress at bay).

Step 4: Review and Revise on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis

A regular check on our goals and an awareness of where we stand is a great motivator and eye opener at the same time. If the progress is not measured, it is easy to feel like you aren’t really moving or to overestimate accomplishment. As I have said earlier, reviews also provide an opportunity to identify what went wrong the last time and to find an easier or better way to do the same things. A practical practice is to review progress each time you are setting new goals (that way you save time and can immediately bring into effect the learning from previous experience).

What gets reviewed, gets improved.

I hope this article helped you perceive different aspects of your life in renewed light and that it crossed your mind to think about what is important as opposed to what is urgent. Do set holistic goals, goals that reward in the long term and do let me know how this article helped. As usual, keep the feedback coming, I feel great reading your comments and responses and it makes me happy to know that my articles are relatable and of help to you.

Following are the links to my previous work:

 The balancing act - A working youngster's attempt to a happy life

Life lessons learnt on the running track

An obvious but overlooked aspect of new year resolutions

My mother's guide to a fulfilling life

The Beauty of Flexibility

Multipotentialite? What?

Acing the multi-potentiality game... (Part II)

Write your way to glory

Finding comfort in discomfort?

I am working on some more interesting work and look forward to sharing them all with you