Conquering your Goals: Goal Setting Techniques

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. It's time for another post in the Conquering Your Goals series. In this series, we have covered setting the right goals, setting up systems to reach our goals and the role of mastery and pleasure in goal setting. Now that we have some clarity on the foundational ideas that guide our efforts toward our goals, we can move into the specifics of how to frame/set our goals. This week we will discuss the different goal-setting techniques one can use to set goals you are more likely to achieve. 

Here are the three techniques we will cover

• SMART Goals (Perhaps the most popular and talked about on 7 Cups)
• OKRs & Goal Stacking (More commonly used in corporate environments)
• Backward Goal Setting/Reverse Engineering (Best for when you don’t know what to do to get where you want to go)

No. 1: SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It is a smart way of remembering how to set your goals so that you are more likely to achieve them.. 

Here is what these terms mean:

• Specific: Your goal needs to be specific. Instead of saying you want to feel strong, narrow it down to something specific like ‘I want to be able to bench press 40 pounds’
• Measurable: Your goal needs to have a measure associated with it that you can look at to track progress. Instead of aiming to walk a lot, aim to walk additional XXX steps everyday. 
• Achievable: It needs to be realistic, If you walk 1000 steps daily and now you want to walk 15000 the next day, that is unrealistic for most people. 
• Relevant: It should be in alignment with your core values. 
• Time-bound: There needs to be clarity on when you want to achieve it. How long do you have. 

Now let's look at a common goal and how it changes when you apply the SMART technique to it 

Goal: I want to be a good cook. 

SMART Applied: I will have mastered cooking seasoned rice, two types of lean proteins, and 5 different vegetables by the end of November.  

No. 2: OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

It stands for Objectives and Key Results. Using this strategy you will phrase the goal in a clear measurable way and then list down 4-6 tasks you will do to achieve this objective. 

Objective: Where you want to go (It needs to have a metric attached to it so you can tell if you went there!)

Key Results: How you plan to get there

Let's look at an example of a common goal

Goal: I want to reduce my screen time

Objective: Reduce screen time, measured by reducing phone usage to less than 1 hour daily by November 15, 2024

• Replace bedtime phone usage with X-book
• Replace my phone alarm with an old-school alarm clock
• Keep my phone in a separate room
• Schedule phone usage times
• Only pick up my phone to answer phone calls outside phone usage time. 

Now when comes Nov 15, I as the goal setter would mark off the KRs I have implemented and then see if I actually managed to reach my goal. If not, adjust your KRs and/or your goal and try again! Usually, companies use OKRs to set goals for every quarter of the year (every 3 months) to stay on track. For personal use, you can use them however you like

No. 3: Backward Goal Setting/Reverse Engineering

The first two techniques are more suitable when you have a reasonable idea of what you need to do. But sometimes we have a broader idea of what we want but are unsure how to get there. Then it helps to use this technique to get some ideas! Like the name suggests, first we look at what we want to achieve and then we work backwards to the steps we need to take. 

In the post where we discussed our goals in alignment with core values. Many people identified family as a value they cherish. It so happens to also be one of the more complex areas of goal settings so lets use that as an example. 

So Alex wishes to have a family where everyone feels like they belong. Here is how she uses this technique. 

Goal: Create a family environment where everyone feels connected, heard and respected. 

Let's see what milestones will likely happen before such a goal is realized. 

Here is what likely will happen:

• Family members being able to speak their mind
• Conflict resolved in an effective manner 
• Family comes together in some form of frequent fashion doing things the members want to do
• People feel comfortable to share what they truly feel
• People come together to celebrate things that matter to them 
• People will know what everyone is going through 

Based on the things that should happen before I feel like my family members respect each other and are connected. I think the following milestones need be reached: 

1. Milestone 1: Regular family communication and conflict resolution.
2. Milestone 2: Consistent and meaningful family activities.
3. Milestone 3: Established family traditions and rituals.
4. Milestone 4: Open and honest emotional sharing among family members.

Now let's see how one can reach these milestones

Milestone 1 (Regular Communication):

• Step 1:  Educate family members on active listening and empathy.
• Step 2: Create a family group chat where there is a weekly prompt that encourages communication
• Step 3: Enforce agreed upon guidelines that prevent family members from using the group chat in a way that can create or add to conflict. 

Milestone 2 (Consistent Family Activities):

• Step 1: Have family members send activities they want to do in the family group chat
• Step 2: Schedule a monthly family outing or activity that everyone enjoys. Use the group chat so people can vote on what they want to do. 

Milestone 3 (Family Traditions and Rituals):

• Step 1: Create a family calendar where family members add any important things happening in their life. 
• Step 2: At the weekly meeting, dedicate time to acknowledging/supporting or celebrating the member(s) in their weekly happenings

Milestone 4 (Emotional Sharing):

• Step 1: Whenever conflict arises, it will be addressed in the family meetings
• Step 2: People take turns holding a mug and sharing what they are feeling, others do not talk while the person with the mug shares. They take turns until all things are said
• Step 3: The family provides listening support/empathy and write down 3 steps they can take to support the people involved. Same process to support someone going through a tough time. 

So now Alex can take all these goals and use either the SMART goals technique or OKRs to start working on these smaller steps to reach her goal. More complex goals such as these can take months to years so it helps to break them down and just focus on the very next step. If you use the systems right, your goals will be met while you only focus on whats the next step! 

Applying these techniques essentially helps you create systems to reach your goals. 

🔦Tasks for you (Please complete both)

Think of one goal you have. One that is in alignment with your core values. Then complete the following tasks. 

Part 1: Apply the SMART Method to it. See the example above in SMART section for inspiration. You may keep this answer brief. 

Part 2: Apply either OKRs OR Backward Goal Setting to the same goal and share with us. Please provide thorough and detailed answers for the second part of the task. 

If you chose:

• OKRs: You will need to make sure the goal is clearly defined, has a measurable element to it, and has at least 4 KRs. The KRs need to be specific 
• Backward Goal Setting/Reverse Engineering: You only need to talk about 1 milestone that leads to your goal and 2-3 steps to reach that 1 milestone. Refer to the example above to better understand. 

Note: I understand that these methods can be daunting. You are not aiming for perfection, just apply them as it makes sense and if need be I will provide some feedback on the changes you can make to better use the method and together we will learn by doing! It is common to not get it the first time. 

This post is part of the Conquering Your Goals Series. Check out all the posts here.