Why it's important to have goals.

Don't click away. I know the sentence "you need to set goals" is as cliche as it comes. But let's get abstract for a second. How much time are you spending on these goals? How much thought have you put into these goals? I want you to think long and hard about these questions because how you approach this post depends on your current state in your planning.

Attributes of a goal

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainanble

• Relevant

• Time-based

I'm sure you have head the term "SMART Goals" and this term was coined by George Doran and 2 others in an article in 1981. The fact that it is now the go to for planning goals goes to show how effective this planning system is. Before we move on, I do not expect you to refer to the mnemonic acronym everytime you set a goal. The objective here is to understand it so that you start creating goals with the SMART mindset unconsciously and that takes practice. Let us break down these attributes one by one.

Specific

This attribute is very objective in a sense that it does not change from person to person. The more specific a goal is, the easier it is to do them or in other words, the easier it is for you to start on them. I mentioned this concept in my previous post on why we should all have a journal.

Using the same example,

Vague Goal :

Become healthier

Specific Goal :

Go to the name gym every Monday and Thursday at 3 p.m. and do the following sets

Push ups 5 * 10

Sit ups 5 * 8

Also, eat an apple every alternate day

Instantly, we can see how the latter is less daunting and requires less motivation to do. Don't you? So being more clear with your goal is like paving the path from where you are right now to your end goal and all you have to do is move.

Measurable

Being measurable simply means you can judge how close you are to your goal or if you have surpassed your goal already. A simple goal of becoming healthier ( from the previous example ) is not measurable and in turn, as time progresses, you cannot tell whether you are getting closer. At least over short periods of time. Hence, it would be better if you target the amount of water you drink daily or the number of hours you excercise. If you are a numberphile like me and your goal is something that constantly increases, you could graph the habit against time to determine your rate of improvement ( just for some extra fun ).

Attainable

"Shoot for the moon and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars"

This quote does not resonate with me. If you are going to shoot for the moon, make sure you build yourself a rocket that can get you there first. I understand the good nature of the quote and I don't mean to put it through the wringer or anything but you will be much better of shooting for the stars and then landing on it and then aim for the moon afterwards. If a task is too big to be attainable or even to seem attainable, break it down into smaller parts, decompose the problem to the the very basics. I like to think of this in terms of reasoning from first principles - the idea of breaking down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassembling them from the ground up. We can use reasoning from first principles to solve a big problem in our lives and set a miniscule goal to target each basic element. This makes the final goal much more attainable, allowing the moon to look much closer than before. Also the more attainable a goal is, the more likely you are to reach it. That is intuitive right?

Relevant and Time-based

I put these 2 attributes together because I feel they go hand in hand with one another. Additionally, I feel these goals make up a smaller part of the SMART goal system. Now that your goals are specific, measurable and attainable - are they right for you? There is no point in achieving these goals if they are not going to benefit you in the long run and so, how much of your time will it take up or how long will it take to accomplish these goals. These are important factors to think about when setting a goal.

Finally, from my personal experience, my last piece of advice would be to not overthink it. Start setting goals as soon as possible and planning your goals sounds audacious. I have spent too much of my own time planning my goals and not actually on trying to achieve them. It was like I planned to fail. It is pretty ironic. Anyways, have you set any goals recently? Tell me about them in the comment section!