No More Pointless Goals.

So, it’s getting toward goal setting season...

This time around, I’m not going to be setting any more pointless goals… and there’s a couple of layers of meaning around that --- keep reading, because I think you might like this, it involves some new ideas which I am open to feedback/discussion on.

Most of my life I have set goals for the year ahead, and most of the time end up achieving most of whatever I put on the list. Years where I didn't have goals saw less achieved and more aimlessness.

To be clear, I'd say it's fairly obvious that setting goals is a valuable process.

But.

This year trying something different…

The last couple of years I found myself setting thing/event/achievement goals... but *towards*, or to *represent* some ideal or general desire. So for example, "run a marathon" because I felt unfit or wanted to lose weight.

That’s an approach that can work. And it’s good to have thing goals if you really want to do that specific thing or prove a point, etc etc

Here’s my problem:

Most of the areas I want to advance on right now don’t really have a logical “specific, measurable” thing or event that I can attach or represent...

e.g. be a better father, work on relationship, get stronger, prioritize health, etc

Maybe it's a lack of imagination to say that you can't really turn those into thing/event/achievement goals -- but those are the areas that will move the dial the most for me at this stage.

Then it occurred to me, what about *points* (or even going for a "high-score")?

Simple example: Exercise...

e.g. did you do some form of exercise today?

yes = 1 point

no = 0 points

The "goal" then becomes score 365 points for the year.

Of course, you could finesse it a bit with different points for different types of exercise, e.g. a 30 minute walk = 1 point vs a 1 hour weights session = 3 points. Then lay out what a reasonable minimum score should be and set that as your baseline, and allow some room for outperformance.

So really it’s about is *process goals* -- focusing on the effort rather than the results (but the results should naturally come with time)

With the fundamental question being:

"did you at least show up in ALL of the areas of your life that you deem important?"

And then having objective measures for accountability and visibility around that.

So to go back to the title, there is actually two points to make:

1. Don’t set pointless goals (e.g. don’t go saying you want to run a marathon just because you want to get fit – do it if you have something to prove, or if there is a deeper meaning to it, but hone in on what you actually want to achieve – where do you want to make progress or avoid going backwards on... where will it -cost- you to not show up?)

2. Don’t set point-less goals: identify all the areas that are important to at least show-up, identify some specific minimum actions to take on a daily/weekly basis that will ensure elevation/progress over time and assign a point scoring system, and then your goal becomes to achieve a minimum total score for the year.

Hopefully you see the point in this article :-)

Best wishes for 2021, let's make this year count.

Kind regards,

Callum Thomas