Goal Setting - Using GPS to help you navigate to success

 "After decades of research into how the human brain works, scientists now know that, for our brains to figure out how to get what we want, we must first decide what we want. The research is clear: people who set goals are more successful" (Jack Cranfield). There’s something incredibly motivating about setting a goal and working towards it. When we set a goal for ourselves, it actually becomes part of us. It becomes part of our identity and who we are.

We change our behaviour and our mindset to make sure we accomplish a goal. In psychology, this is known as the ‘endowment effect’, which happens when we take ownership of something and it becomes ‘ours’. When we take ownership of something, like a goal, we are more committed to it. 

Two psychologists, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, discovered that goal setting is one of the easiest ways to increase motivation and productivity. Over multiple studies Locke and Latham found that setting goals increases productivity by between 11% and 25%. 

Locke wrote a paper called ‘Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives’, which showed a few important things about setting and achieving goals: 

?     Specific goals improve the performance of employees

?     Relevant feedback motivates employees towards goals

?     The more specific and difficult a goal is, the harder people tend to work on achieving it 

Having short and long-term goals can have a number of benefits, including: 

?     Providing motivation

?     Helping us to focus on what is important

?     Giving a real sense of personal satisfaction upon achievement

?     Giving a sense of purpose

?     Helping us develop the resilience to persist when the going gets tough

?     Targeting a goal encourages us to develop strategies and tactics to achieve our goal 

GPS 

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in work and life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You’ll also quickly spot the distractions that can lead you astray. 

By setting clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you’ll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognise your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you’ve set. 

The goal setting process forces us to take stock of where we are now. When it comes to goal setting and planning, there are loads of tools out there and if you have one already that works for you, as we said, just move on. However, if you are curious, have a read and see if this works for you. 

So what is GPS? 

GOAL 

“Begin with the end in mind” – Stephen Covey 

If your goal isn’t clearly set, how will you know if you’ve ever achieved it? An effective goal is clear, measurable, time-bound and specific (yes, SMART can and does work). You need to be able to tell very quickly if you hit your mark or not. That clarity will help you focus and plan each step to achieve the goal better. 

Research found that the more difficult and specific a goal is, the harder people will work to achieve it. When goals are too easy or too difficult, people will not put forward their best effort. A difficult goal is more rewarding, and that will lead you to work harder towards it. 

Consider this when thinking about a goal: once we have a deeper awareness of what we want to change (our goal), we need to make a conscious choice about the actual change we are going to make. For example, we may have started off wanting to spend more time engaging with our team, but, as awareness grew, it became obvious the change required was a change in mindset to start valuing the opinion of people less senior. Once we are clear on what the change actually is and why it is truly important, we need to strength-test it by creating an emotional vision of what good looks like and checking our commitment to the change. Ask yourself: 

?     Why is this important to me?

?     What will I do to achieve this goal?

?     What are the benefits of changing?

?     What will I gain/lose by not changing?

?     How will the change meet all my needs (including the hidden ones)?

?     When do I want to have achieved this by?

?     How will I know when I’ve arrived?

?     What will success look like?

?     What will get in the way of my being successful and what do I need to do about these things?

?     Given the whole set of changes I will need to make, what is my level of commitment?

?     What is the actual choice I am making? 

The goal will realistically only be achieved if you truly want to achieve it. If deep down you have no actual desire to change your habit or behaviour, it doesn’t matter how challenging you set the goal to be. Goals should stretch us without overwhelming us. When we’re faced with seemingly impossible goals, we disengage. Instead of being motivated by the goal, it saps our energy. Mindset and perception are essential. Research on stretch goals shows that they can produce amazing results if people can imagine the possibility of accomplishing them. 

Be aware of ego depletion – https://www.verywellmind.com/ego-depletion-4175496 

PROCESS 

“It is not enough to take steps which may someday lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

If goals are so important, why do we fail to achieve them? Because we don’t plan the steps to get there. A goal setting process forces you to think about the journey (in other words, how you’re going to complete your tasks) instead of just the end destination. Having a plan and process will give you clarity on what needs to happen to get you to your goal. When we set goals, it’s easy to fixate on that magical ending when we’ve reached the goal and everything is better. But we can’t control outcomes, and we certainly can’t will them into existence. We have to inch towards them, one choice at a time. 

Creating a plan is a step that is often missed in the process of goal setting. You get so focused on the outcome (the goal) that you forget to plan all the steps that are needed along the way. By writing out the individual steps, and then crossing each one off as you complete it, you’ll realise that you are making progress towards your ultimate goal. This is especially important if your goal is big and demanding, or long term. According to research, creating an action plan this way activates a different part of your brain and cements the goals in your mind. 

"Be aware of the planning fallacy; multiple studies have shown that people consistently underestimate the amount of time or resources it would take to complete any given task, especially ones of immediate urgency. Our mental process is optimistic, and it fails to adjust for any potential mishaps" (Wikipedia)

“Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.” – Stephen Covey 

SUPPORT 

“The going is the goal.” – Horace Kallen 

Support is the thing you need or the help that is needed to get there. Sometimes our journey requires others’ input, guidance and support. If your goal is (BHAG) big and hairy then maybe some friends or support is required. Having the right support in place will not only assist but hold you to account when the going gets tough. 

Most people make the big mistake of thinking that, having made the decision to change, they can take a few steps in the right direction and all will miraculously fall into place. Not so. Imagine we decided to become a professional hang-gliding instructor having never been in a hang-glider before; what would we do? Among other things, we may read some books, find an instructor, buy a hang-glider, research the market, and find out who employs instructors and how much they earn, etc.

Personal behavioural change is no different; the most successful change happens when people consciously create the right environment for the change to happen. They make it easy by getting help, buying the kit, making the time. They make it attractive by staying focused on the benefits, having fun with it and rewarding their success. They recruit help by advertising the change and getting people to give them feedback, and they practise. They decide to intentionally practise their new behaviour and they review their progress. They don’t throw the towel in when they get it wrong; they see it as a further learning and a way of building their personal awareness. We will need to think about: 

?        Who will be our learning council?

?        Who will we advertise our change to?

?        What support will we need and how will we get it?

?        What will happen if and when we slip back into old habits?

?        Are we shying away from some of the bravery change actions – if so, why?

?        Do we need to check in on our choice again? 

Remember that research from UCL tells us that it takes, on average, 66 days to change a habit. So ensuring we have accurately identified the right change, we are completely committed to that change and we have set up a robust change support system will be essential to get us to day 67 and success. 

Consider these goal setting mistakes 

When we first set our goals, we are super optimistic and filled with hope – and that’s great. One thing that happens, however, is we fail to identify possible blockers. It is really important to do a pre-mortem and consider what could stop you achieving success, and then think about how you could mitigate against that. People sometimes do things that sabotage their goal setting plans. The good news is that these mistakes are avoidable. Here are some common goal setting mistakes: 

·    Setting too many goals at once

·    Underestimating the time it takes to set goals, and not reviewing goals on a regular basis

·    Not following up to evaluate goals – by not following up and evaluating goals, the effort to set goals is a waste of time and effort 

During the process of trying to achieve your goal, failure or a minor setback is pretty much guaranteed. It’s easy to just give up on the goal entirely once you experience a minor setback but, if you prepare for failure, you’ll be able to handle it better. We need to accept and understand that setbacks are normal – everyone experiences them – you just need to get back on track. 

So, as you create your goals, work out what you really want to change, identify the specific practical steps you can take to help you do so, and don’t forget to include what you want to achieve and learn. And look to get the support you need to achieve your goals. 

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau 

A great post on turning your goals into habits! https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truisms-wellness/201610/the-science-accomplishing-your-goals 

Top ten tips  

1.   Take accountability – when we take ownership of something – an item, an idea or a goal – we are more committed to it. "This is called the ‘endowment effect’ and happens when we take ownership of something and it becomes ‘ours’, thereby integrating it into our sense of identity". Cornell University researchers demonstrated the endowment effect with a clever experiment. First, researchers gave participants coffee mugs and offered to trade them chocolate for their mug. Almost none of the participants wanted to trade. Next, researchers reversed the trial. They gave participants chocolate and then asked them to trade it for the coffee mug. Again, very few wanted to trade. This is the endowment effect in action. It was about what they already had, not about the actual objects. When we take ownership of something, we work to keep it. The accountability ladder tool maybe of help:

2.   Advertise the change – tell other people your goals and what you are looking to change. The key to the success of your goal is through iterative feedback by tracking the progress as it goes and then adjusting as necessary. Feedback and accountability will supercharge your goals.

3.   Get an accountability buddy – science shows that by advertising your goal (change) to a peer you are more likely to succeed.

4.   Be aware of biases – while you may believe yourself to be fairly open-minded, your subconscious actually accepts and rejects information according to what you want to believe; i.e. ‘Recency bias’ is the phenomenon of a person most easily remembering something that has happened recently, compared to remembering something that may have occurred a while back. So be aware of your biases if you are reviewing other people’s goals. There’s also the problem where we overestimate our own or other people’s abilities based on perception, also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

5.   Be positive – state each goal as a positive statement. Express your goals positively – ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘Don’t make this stupid mistake’.

6.   Be precise – set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you’ll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it. Research found that, 90% of the time, specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than easy or ‘do your best’ goals. Set realistic goals – it’s important to set goals that you can achieve.

7.   Focus on what matters – when you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.

8.   Write goals down – this crystallises them and gives them more force. Professor Gail Matthews of Dominican University of California did her own study not long ago that confirmed the power of writing down our goals. The study showed a significant improvement in reaching goals when they were written. In fact, just by writing down your goals you are 42% more likely to achieve them. Why? Because writing it down brings clarity and declares purpose, and that level of intentionality gives direction to our thoughts and actions even when we’re not fully focused on the goal.

9.   Small change, big difference – if a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunity for reward.

10.Set performance goals, not outcome goals – you should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control!  

And don’t forget to celebrate your successes and the success of others!