Categories: Book Rapper

How to Design Effective Goals

Setting goals is one thing that sets us apart from our animal cousins. We can plan for the future, they can’t. And, achieving our goals is one thing that separates the successful from the rest. Here we look at the role of goals in life and how good you are at fulfilling them.

It’s been taken from our Book Rapper issue: Victory. This was was derived from Heidi Grant Halvorson’s brilliant book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals.

[Tweet “Three crucial things you need to know about designing your goals #goalsetting”]

Three Things…

Here are three crucial things you need to know about designing your goals…

1 Know Where

The whole point of setting goals is to provide direction and a benchmark for decision making. Not choosing makes life more difficult.

  • At holiday time, if we just jumped in our car and started driving in any direction this would make it difficult to decide what to pack.

2 Be specific

The more specific we are about what we want to achieve the better.

  • ‘Earning $100,000’ is better than ‘getting rich’.
  • Running 5K in under 30 minutes is better than ‘getting fit’.
  • Spending 3 weeks in Italy is better than ‘travelling more’.

3 Set the bar high

Goals are meant to be a stretch. Difficult goals inspire greater effort, force us to strategize how to achieve them and provide greater satisfaction when we’ve fulfilled them.

QUESTION: How good are you at achieving your goals? Do you aim high enough?

 

Geoff McDonald

Share
Published by
Geoff McDonald
Tags: goals

Recent Posts

The Things We Learn to See with Philippe Guichard

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Industrial Designer Philippe Guichard for a conversation on experience.…

10 hours ago

Failure Changed My Design Philosophy with Philippe Guichard

When Industrial Designer Philippe Guichard started his career as a designer, success was partly about proving…

4 days ago

What Designers Notice with Philippe Guichard

What do designers notice that other people miss? When Industrial Designer Philippe Guichard walks into…

1 week ago

Your Experience Has a Use-By Date with Mark Molony

A few days after my first conversation with mindfulness teacher Mark Molony, he contacted me…

2 weeks ago

Experience is Just a Memory with Mark Molony

We often talk about learning from experience. But what if experience isn't what we think it…

2 weeks ago

What if Your Experience is Outdated With Mark Molony

You've spent years building your experience. But what if some of it is quietly becoming less…

3 weeks ago