How to Do Goal Setting & Creating SMART Goals by Morgan Dramaj and Neil Strauss
“ If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there.” — Neil Strauss
Introduction
Goal setting helps us gain clarity in life, and have a clear direction to get what is important to us in life. Download the goal-setting template here (with my own goals in it), and go through the article before setting your own goals. P.S. I‘ve spent 3 weeks setting my own goals, so really invest the time to think deeply about what is important to you if you didn’t need money and attention.
Basic Theories on Goals
1. You don’t have to pick your perfect goal. You just have to pick something that you don’t hate and move towards it.
Some people just keep thinking about their passion, their purpose, or what they want to do in life and don’t really take action and commit to one direction first. They keep circling around, don’t get anywhere, and stay in a state of confusion for many years.
Instead, you should just set a goal, and start moving forward. You can always adjust it later on. When you go towards one goal, you will open other doors, and you can change towards a new direction by then.
For example, Noah Kagan started working in Intel, then he changed to being a Product Manager in Facebook. Later on, he became the Marketing Director for Mint.com. Then he created Appsumo and retired around 30. But the key is he started somewhere in the beginning.
2. Don’t quit your day job. Just do your passion in your spare time, build momentum, and change when the time is right
The two trains theory: When you’re on one train, let’s say your full-time day job, it’s going at a certain speed. And let’s say you want to do something creative. Some people would stop their day job, and give this creative project a year, and see if it works. And what happens is after a year, the money starts to run out, you start to get a little desperate, and then you may take an even worse job and feel bad about it. The two trains theory is “ I’m going to stay with this job. But I’m going to get something else going in my spare time. Even if it means I’m sacrificing a lot of fun stuff. And then once that train starts going at the same speed or faster, I’ll just switch trains.” You don’t get off the train and wait for the next train (i.e. your side project). Because when you’re standing on the platform, watching all the trains go by, you have no value to someone else. People only want to hire or work with a person of value, who is usually working successfully at the moment.
3. Set Goals That Are True For You
Your goals can be career goals, dating goals, personal development goals, etc. You can have as many goals as you want, as long as they are important to you
4. Make Your Goals Specific and Achievable
“Making an extra $10,000 by 31st December 2021” is more specific and better than “Making more money.” Break down the goal into specific, actionable steps that you need to take to get there. That is how you know the goals would be achievable. If you show the specific steps to someone, they can do it themselves, hit the targets, and get your goals without any superpower.
5. Your Goals Are You Compass For Life
Anything that will not bring you closer to your goals should be ignored. Your goals should be the most important things in your life.
SMART GOALS
The difference between a goal, and a dream or idea, is that a goal is SMART.
“ I want a new job”, “I want to make more money”, “ I want to meet a lot of women” are not goals. You want your brain to focus and target on your goals.
- Specific: “I want to be the CEO of company X” is more specific than “I want a new job”
- Measurable: “I want to make 150,000 in the next 6 months” is more measurable than “I want to make more money”
- Achievable: “I want to make 100 million dollars next year” is not achievable. You can stretch, and reach for the stars, but it has to be achievable. Otherwise, your brain won’t believe it anyway.
- Realistic: Realistic is just similar to Achievable.
- Time-bound: “I want a new job.” By when? “I want a job by 30th June 2021”.
Exercise: Set Your Own Goals
Here is my own goal setting in August 2021, you can download it as a template.
Part 1 — Goal Setting
Whether you want to improve your career, your dating life, your overall wellbeing, or anything else in-between, you need to have a clear destination in mind in order to get anywhere in life. Otherwise, you’ll most likely drift in random directions and never get where to where you want to go.
Your core lesson for the week focused on recognizing what truly matters in life and setting goals so you can start reaching for the life you’ve always wanted.
For this week’s first assignment, you’ll use the S.M.A.R.T. Goal format to set at least one goal for the next two weeks using the following questions:
- What is your current situation?
2. Where do you want to go? Make this Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
3. What stands in the way, and how are you going to get there?
- Identify tools, resources, and steps you’ll need to achieve your goal
- Create a list of VERY SPECIFIC steps, in order and with due dates, that you will take to achieve your goal. Make sure you schedule these items in your calendar system.
- Include possible obstacles, and how you’ll overcome them. Ex: “I don’t know how to do this” can be solved by “Learn how to do this by looking it up online / finding a guide or mentor / etc.” Ex: “I’m too busy” can be solved by “Journaling my time to identify where I might be wasting some of it and identifying how I can gain those hours back.” Remember that working on something for one hour a day is better than nothing.
- What are the negative consequences if you don’t follow through?
Be sure to answer each question in as many details as possible. The clearer you paint the picture, the easier it’ll be to put it into action.
Once you’ve completed this week’s assignment, let us know what you’re up to in the comment box below.
Part 2 — The Five Year Plan (Optional)
This exercise is optional. But we decided to include it for those of you who really want to step into your purpose and turn it into reality.
It’s an advanced version of goal setting. We call it the Five-Year Plan, and as the name implies, it’ll help you plan the next five years of your life.
For some, five years may seem like something very far away, almost imaginary. But if you start planning for the future now, you’ll be amazed at how quickly things start moving.
So, where do you see yourself in five years?
With this in mind, read the following questions and really think about them before you answer. Take your time, and craft your answers carefully before writing them down.
Note: If you’re answering these on paper, be sure to do it with a pencil as you will most likely be making changes and corrections as you go through it.
- Write a paragraph describing your ideal career or professional life in five years. Include where you will be working, what you will be doing, and what it’ll be like. Be as detailed as possible, and make sure this is a practical and achievable reality for you.
- Write a paragraph describing your lifestyle in five years. Include where you will be living, what your dating or relationship status will be and with what kind of people/person, how your social life and circle of friends will be defined, what you will be doing for recreation and anything else you can think of. Be as detailed as possible, and make sure this is a practical and achievable reality for you.
- Take a moment to envision your ideal and achievable life in five years. Is there any element of your future lifestyle that you left out of the previous paragraphs? If so, complete the scenario by filling in the missing information in as many details as possible.
- Now examine the paragraphs you’ve written and extract three or more clearly defined long-term goals. Write them down.
- For each long-term goal, create a plan of action for yourself. There should be simple, clear steps or milestones for reaching each goal. Note: Only write one step per line and leave a blank line after each one for additional writing.
- Now create a timeline for each of your goals. In front of each step/milestone in your plan, write a specific date (month/year) on which you will have completed it. Naturally, your final step should be completed sometime within the next five years.
- OPTIONAL (Recommended): Return to your answers to Question #5. Next to or below each step in your plan of action, if applicable, list the expenses and/or resources necessary to complete the step. Also, write down where the money or resource will come from if you don’t currently have access to them.
- OPTIONAL: Return to your answers to Question #5. Next to or below each milestone, build in risk. In other words, describe possible things that could go wrong and create contingency plans. For example, if your goal is to be an actor, what happens if you fail every audition: do you seek funding to make your own movie? If your goal is to be a football player, what happens if you get a permanent knee injury: do you become a coach?
- Show your Five Year Plan to a supportive, trustworthy person in your life. Ask them to analyze each step of your timeline. Have them look for errors, omissions, inaccuracies, logical flaws, unrealistic planning, or anything else that would keep you from achieving each step on the appointed time. Make any necessary changes to your five-year plan afterward.
- Keep this plan somewhere safe. Every year, take a day to re-examine your five-year plan. See what goals you met, what goals you missed, and what needs to be changed in the plan due to new experiences ideas, and opportunities that have come up since the year before.
- Congratulate yourself. You have created and are now implementing your best future. You’ve already done more to get ahead and achieve your goals than most people do in a lifetime.
Based on Phase 1:Foundation- Module 2.3: Goal Setting by The Society
If you love high-quality contents related to Wealth, Health, and Relationship like this one, sign up for my weekly newsletter where I share practical actions to become your best self: sendfox.com/jasonkwan
