Goal - Setting Strategy

sudhirke

As we are in the season of Goal-Setting, everywhere you go you will have thousands of strategies for setting up fancy goals.

I personally like to be low-tech when setting goal, so I just decide what I want to achieve and every time I take action, I just write it down.

What's your goal-setting strategy?

Alexandra

sudhirke Writing it down is a great strategy because that way, it will stick in your memory!
I have just decided that with so few clients and jobs on freelance platforms now, my new goal-setting strategy will feature (a) incremental, adaptable increases to goal outcomes (such as "double income from writing") and (b) flexibility about timelines. In other words, I will focus on investing in myself during the downturn to prepare for returns when the time comes.

Mark

Honestly, I think goals are a bad idea or at least the way are typically be approached is bad. With a goal you it feels like you set a destination but that really does not move you to that destination. You first need to think why am I not there now or at least headed there and then make the course corrections necessary to get there. But that means goals work like this:

I am going to do {thing} until {goal} is achieved

But most of the time what you really need to do is:
I am going to make this {thing} a regular habit, because right now I am not at {goal}, and that will help me get there...and I will be doing {thing} pretty much for the rest of my life

For example you might want to lose 15 lbs (or whatever Kgs or a couple of stones WTF those are) and so you make that your goal. And you stop eating and then go to the gym and tear yourself to pieces for a couple of months and get there but did you create anything sustainable? What you needed to do, what you almost always need to do, is modify your behavior and that almost always is creating new habits over bad. Eat healthier, eat less, find exercise you enjoy, do it regularly.

A goal creates a sense of urgency and I find that I am all hyped up to start but then it rapidly fades out.

sudhirke

Mark Very well said mark, 90% of the people get it wrong and end up setting same goals again and again. My approach is to set goal on actions rather than outcome.

Outcome should be the byproduct of your action-based goals. I would not setup goal to lose 15Kgs, I would rather set goal for doing 5 hours of workout every week (simple and actionable) and then track everyday I workout, this gives me sense of achievement each passing day rather then waiting till end of the year and feeling guilty of not achieving what I promised to achieve.

TopRatedTroll

My current goal is to redo my profile and I swear to god every time I say I'm gonna do it I look at Upwork and say "meh" and then go do something fun. I'm gonna be good and redo it Friday, and what I do is reward myself with something.

My friend and I were just laughing at ourselves because I go grocery shopping and consider it a productive day, so I'm pathetic when it comes to goals.