How's Your Goals?

We’re almost two months in to 2019, just over 12% to be more exact. If you’re tracking well on your New Year’s resolutions and goals, then this statement might excite you but for those whose goals have fallen off track already it can be a slap in the face.

Most of us start the year strong. It’s a time to press reset, reflect on the past year and imagine what the next year could bring. The process itself can be exciting and bring us a ton of energy. I’ll be honest- I love it! I love the whole process- the looking back, the looking forward, the brainstorming of what things could be.

So, what happens? Why do we get off track so fast? How can we be only weeks in and missing the mark? How is it that we’ve set goals for ourselves and our teams and it’s so difficult to keep things focused and on track all year. Most studies show that less than 10% of the people that set New Year’s resolutions make it to the end of the year successfully.

Why is that?

We come out of the gate strong but then life happens. Sometimes we’re not that committed. Maybe it’s social or professional pressures that are the reason for us setting the goals which will never work in the long run. If you ask Jocko Willink, former Navy Seal Commander and author of Extreme Ownership (Great Book)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H6oLEi87qg he might tell you that you just lack one key ingredient- discipline. While I agree with the importance of self-disciplines, I’m not convinced that discipline is the sole reason we often miss the mark.

Many times, we need to seek better clarity around what we are trying to accomplish and approach our goals in a much more focused way. Other times we need to step back and ask ourselves how bad we want to achieve the goal. If we’re not willing to make some sacrifices and clear space in our lives and schedules to meet the goal, then we probably need to just let it go.

On the other hand, if you are willing to make some sacrifices and clear some space maybe what you need is to approach your goals with a different framework.

If you are trying to make habit goals like working out consistently, reading a book per month or being more prepared for meetings remember that it takes time to develop these patterns in our lives. If you are trying to wake up and run each morning at 5am it will take time to get in to the cadence of preparing yourself the night before and dragging your butt out of bed. It’s not magic, it’s consistency. If we follow the research on forming habits it will take roughly 66 days to make things stick. That means even if you started on January 1st and you’ve been hitting the mark so far, you will have to make it in to March before you have statistically created a new habit for yourself. If you have tried to start a new habit goal and have been struggling to be consistent try this; scale back your expectations a bit until you build momentum. Start small and build little by little. Consistency is key. If you started the year telling yourself, you were going to clear your whole email inbox twice daily you are setting yourself up for failure. Maybe readjust your expectations and set a goal for 24-48-hour responses on emails and designate specific times of the day that you will answer messages.

This is where the SMART goals framework can help us. At this point almost everyone should be familiar with this framework.

Make sure your goals are:

Specific

Measurable

Action Oriented

Realistic

Time Bound

Or even better, use the goal setting framework of Michael Hyatt, CEO of Michael Hyatt and Company by setting SMARTER Goals

Specific

Measurable

Action Oriented

RISKY

Time Bound

EXCITING

Realistic

 The thing I like about this model is that he adds these other two elements of risky and exciting. For the RISKY element the premise is that goals should not be in our comfort zone because those are tasks or projects. For the EXCITING element the premise is that if we are not excited about the goals, we won’t stick it out when we get to what Michael calls the “tough middle” after the initial motivation of the goal wears off.

Another mistake most people make is to set their goals too far off in the distance. If you have a goal to complete a project in 2019 and its an annual goal you need to spread things out and have a good system for working incrementally towards your goal.

Try the 3x3x3 goal strategy. It’s simple yet makes so much sense.

Break your annual goals down to quarterly goals. If you are setting goals for yourself or your team don’t go after more than 3-5 big goals per quarter, preferably 3. Now take those three quarterly goals and break them down in to three smaller monthly goals that lead you to the achievement of the larger quarterly goal. Then take the three monthly goals and break them down by three weekly actions each week that will lead to you achieving the three monthly goals. Most of us already have a list of daily big-ticket items that we want to get done each day. If you insure that a large portion of your daily big-ticket items correspond to your weekly action items then you are on your way to achieving your goals.

Here’s a simplistic example from a software implementation. Quarterly Goal – Go live with a new software system.

Month 1- Have all users set up in the Sandbox/ Development system and apply standard configurations.

Week 1- Compile all user information and collate according to the unique software system user fields.

Week 2- Conduct basic training on the software system for implementation team.

Week 3 – Work with the Implementation Specialist(s) to configure the system using imported company data.

The great thing about setting your goals up like this is that you can see your progress and celebrate your wins easily. You will know every week if you have been successful and you can adjust accordingly. The key is reviewing things regularly and adjusting. Life happens, it’s not about whether you WILL have to adjust but rather WHEN you will.

Remember you’re only 12% in to the year. Take a deep breath, you have time. Step back, reset your goals using the SMARTER format and celebrate your wins on December 31st!