Let’s Resolve To Set Smarter Goals

By Elyse Ball

This time of year, we’re all thinking about new year’s resolutions. In fact, I’ve already been asked about my new year’s resolutions – or lack thereof – three times in the last three days.

Rather than making up a few vague vanilla resolutions that we’ll forget by March, like “exercise more” or “drink less caffeine,” let’s make 2022 a year for great goals! These are goals that are specific, quantitative, and challenging, so they drive us to learn and accomplish more.

What makes a goal great?

​It’s specific and quantitative. As one psychologist pithily put it, “when people are asked to do their best, they do not.” Ideally, goals should have a performance metric, like hours, tasks completed or times per week, and a number, like one, two or 10. For example, exercise more is an okay goal, but your brain will be constantly fighting with itself as to whether you’re achieving it. Exercise at least three times per week is much better. Even if you can’t include a number, try to be as specific as possible by asking yourself, “Could I figure out in one minute or less whether I achieved this goal?” You can also set clear short-term goals that lead toward long-term goals that aren’t quite as detailed and quantitative. This can help you to better recognize when your actions are not aligned with what needs to be done to achieve your long-term goals.

It’s challenging. Setting a challenging, but attainable, goal is the best way to drive yourself to achieve. Setting a goal that’s too easy won’t help you achieve your potential. On the other end of the spectrum, goals that feel completely insurmountable can be demoralizing. As with most things in life, balance is important. Try to set a goal that scares you a little! Just remember to cut yourself some slack if you fall short of a challenging goal. You’re still probably achieving more than you would have with an easy goal.

It forces you to learn. Most of us think of goals as being based solely on what we produce, but goals that focus on learning specific skills we want to acquire are often the most valuable. Studies show that people who set specific learning goals do a better job of paying attention and retaining information than those who did not have goals. Of course, learning goals should be specific, quantitative and challenging. For example, a good learning goal might be to develop 5 new strategies for tackling a complex task.

Now, that we have an overarching framework to what makes a great goal, I thought I’d share two of the most popular goal setting system I’ve used.

• SMART Goals are a trendy acronym for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This type of goal can be applied to people or organizations, and to your personal life. To learn more about SMART goals, check out this short video or the University of California’s detailed “how to” guide on setting SMART goals.
  
• OKRs are a system of goal setting based on Objectives and Key Results. Objectives are big, inspirational goals. Key results are short-term, measurable and challenging steps that tell you if you are achieving your objective. To learn more about OKRs, check out this Startup Lab video on how Google sets OKRs or John Doerr’s epic TED Talk on setting the right goals. 
  

Now that I’ve done my research on how to set great goals, my goal for the next week is to set three 2022 goals that will drive me to learn and achieve. If you’re in a goal setting mood, message us via email, LinkedIn or Facebook to tell us about your goals for 2022.