A colleague asked me how I set my goals. I never thought about it explicitly but wrote it down for them and figured I could share it here too. This is just something that works for me. So take it with a grain of salt🧂
I write down a goal and ask myself three questions:
Question #1. 💗 Do I get excited about my goal?
Does my heart start beating faster when I think about working on it?
It’s easy to get started if you’re excited.
In the past I’ve tried to push myself to work on goals that I didn’t enjoy working on. I wanted to help out organizing a conference. But once it went online with covid it killed my motivation.
Instead a bought a ukulele and started lessons.
Question #2: 💡 Will I learn valuable things while trying to achieve the goal?
I work on goals if I can get value from them even if I don’t achieve them.
I don’t achieve most of my goals. And I’m ok with that.
I abandoned my ukulele lessons soon enough. But I had fun and did learn to play a couple of songs. Even if I only played them to myself, my girlfriend, and once to my Bulgarian teacher.
Question #3: 🙌 If I achieve the goal, can I share my success with others?
Sometimes it’s hard to finish things. It’s the downside of the Pareto principle.
Yes it’s easy to get 80% of the way with only 20% of the effort. But if you want to achieve your goals you have to put in the remaining 80% too!
That’s where the support of people around you comes in. For me it really helps if I can imagine celebrating success with others to really go all the way.
For my Bulgarian language lessons it’s all about being able to follow conversations with my girlfriend’s family. That’s what keeps me working on it.
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