How to Achieve Your Goals
Continuing the Fresh Start journey
I almost always start my blog posts by finding the image that will appear at the top. It’s creative, can be a bit of fun, and the easiest thing to get out of the way. Knowing this post would be about how to achieve your goals-sort of-I searched for terms “goals” and “targets” on Canva.
The image you see above caught my eye. First, it’s a strong image. Second, there are some things seriously wrong with it which speak to some things I want to address in this step of my fresh start journey.
This post is about goals… it’s the goal post. (Sorry, I couldn’t help it) but if you want to go back and read about the beginning of my fresh start journey or what the fresh start is all about, follow the links below.
In a nutshell, it’s about getting my house in order, literally and figuratively, so I can make genuine progress towards the life I want for myself.
So, what’s wrong with the image? Imagine the only way to achieve your goal was to fire one flaming arrow into the tiny bullseye. That’s the one chance you have to be 100% sure you’re getting the result you want.
But what about the other arrows? They’re worth a few points, but they feel like misses. They feel like failures. What if they aren’t? What if it’s the target that’s the problem? Now before you run away, I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever aim for bulls-eyes, that skill doesn’t matter, or that we all deserve a prize for drawing back on the bow.
But if this is a metaphor for goal setting, is it not possible the goal is off, not the other six arrows?
How Did I Get Here?
The first step in this Fresh Start program is all about setting goals-big ones. Shoot for the life you really want somewhere down the road goals. Actually, there’s one of those. Shaunta Grimes calls it, “The big hair goal.” And below that, there are a handful of others. Ideally, that handful gets you closer to the BHG. But how do you come up with them?
I’ve been in the corporate world and the world of education. I am no stranger to goal setting theory, SMART goals, or KPIs (key performance indicators) for that matter. But approaching a project like this one with those frameworks and buzzwords in mind felt more limiting and restrictive than I wanted this exercise to be. After all, I would not be submitting my notebook for grading or to HR for my evaluation and review.
I have centered most of my adult life on doing what I needed to do or doing what I thought I was supposed to. Here’s an opportunity to examine what I want. So, I sit pen to paper and draft out what a perfect day in the life would look like.
We are living in Colorado somewhere near the eastern face of the mountains-a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park-in a townhouse or condo with an area for a little garden. I’m working for a company where I can use my creativity and problem-solving skills and feel satisfied with my work. I spend most of my time working remotely. We have two cats and maybe a well-behaved dog. Brandy is working at a job that she finds rewarding and satisfying. We’re both in reasonably good shape, both mentally and physically. In the evening, we go for walks, and take hikes in the mountains on weekends. I feel like I fit in with my colleagues and community-real or virtual. People respect me. I make a respectable side hustle with my writing. I have several published books on the shelf and a community of engaged writer-colleagues, readers, and fans.
Now, I just have to figure out how to turn that pretty picture into a set of goals. I have to define what’s working, what’s missing, and what I could do to bridge the gaps. And to achieve your goals, you need to make sure you’re working with the right ones.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road?
Oh, if it was only that easy! See, as I mentioned, my life has long been about doing what I had to. Not that I have never done what I wanted, but in the day to day that’s not been the focus. And it’s the day-to-day that matters. That’s where the goals are most important. But what’s the right target? How I know what those daily goals should be?
Step back and look at what it means to achieve your goals. You might find that it isn’t what you thought. You might find, for example, that it isn’t specifically Colorado, but something about that place that represents something to you-something that relocation means. Are there feelings associated with that image? That may be where the goal is-to achieve the feeling you associate with that part of the perfect-day image.
I scratch my head a bit. Is my perfect day correct? Did I fill in all the right pieces? Is it too much-too different from my current circumstances? Listen, it’s tough to dream when you’ve conditioned yourself that dreaming is selfish and everyone else needs to come first. I take a deep breath and a couple sips of coffee and I’m pen to paper.
Big Hairy Goal: I want to be a working writer.
- Publish at least 10 books.
- Make a career change
- Pay of all debts
- Get my house organized (inside and out) to something I can be proud of.
- Create an engaged audience on my blog and social media
- Manage my mental-health to a point where I can reduce my daily medication
Wow. That was actually pretty easy. I only lifted the pen for a few seconds. There are lots of details to fill in about what it means to achieve each of those goals, but there they are. I’ve got one big creative goal and five goals that cover broad, well-balanced areas. I could have added another, but six is what the program calls for and I have a feeling it’s going to be more than enough.
So, Now What?
This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. This is the part of the metaphor about creating the right target. If you want to be technical about it, this is the part about relentless incrementalism.
Just a little. Every day. That’s the recipe. The ingredients depend on the goal. Take my first non-creative goal. That one involves a slightly different approach with additional steps. Make a career change.
That’s a seriously intimidating proposition. Imagine you must hit that tiny bullseye to make it happen. At some point, you’re going to have to make that shot, but the first time you draw the now? That pressure is enough to make you turn around and go right back to whatever work it is you’re wanting to leave. That’s no way to achieve your goals.
But what if the bulls-eye were much larger? What if there were dozens of targets down, each with a sizeable sweet spot in which to sink your arrow? So, now the goal is this (and mind you, this hypothetical is assuming you aren’t in a time crunch:) you only have to spend 10 minutes a day reading job descriptions. Then, once you’re focused in on what you want, you only have to spend 10 minutes a day retooling your resume and customizing cover letters. Ten minutes?!
Somewhere in your day, you have 10 minutes. Often, we feel like something takes every minute up and we don’t even know what. But you can rise 10 minutes earlier or go to bed 10 minutes later. Do you watch 10 minutes’ worth of television you’d be willing to give up to achieve your goals? Even if you’re so busy you can’t sit for 10 minutes, can you scroll job descriptions on your phone, dictate ideas to a voice recorder app? If you’re dedicated to it (there’s that word of the year) you DO have 10 minutes.
A Big Picture in Little Pieces
Break the big goals down into milestones. What are the checkpoints you have to hit along the way to get to reach that big goal at the end? How can you break that into tiny chunks so easily done, it’s ridiculous not to? Then, if there’s a there’s an end point within your control, measure out how far your incremental steps take you to that last big target-the one all this archery practice has been for. Mark it on the calendar and treat it like a job. You have no choice but to work on the little thing, whatever it is, for 10 minutes a day (minimum) until you get there.
Now, I said “in your control,” and I need to address that. Landing a new job is not completely in my control. So my milestones are all the things which are in my control-the resume, the cover letters, the upskilling, the networking. My goal is to position myself for the career change. If I do all the other things right, that should fall into place, but there are factors beyond my control. In this example, I have to keep firing at that small target, but I know my arrows are straight, my arm steady, and technique flawless.
But take another example: To get to my goal of 10 books, I need to finish one at a time. I can work on multiple projects concurrently, but only one is going to go all the way through the process at a time.
If you’ve read any of my earlier blogs, you know I loathe the revision process. It’s the work, the pain, the suffering of noveling. The rough draft is the fun, the creative, the passion. But it has to be done. The only way to do it treat it like a job-a 10 minute job every day. The sequel to Justice for the Missing is about 320 pages long. I can do a first pass revision at about a page a minute. So, 10 minutes a day and I’m done in a month. And that’s assuming I never do a day a little quicker or spend an extra 5 minutes.
Even the worst task isn’t unbearable in 10 minute chunks. With this approach, I’ve made more progress getting through this draft in the last two weeks than I have all last year. Last year, it was a giant tome of terror-a task so monumental I’d never finish it and keep my sanity, nevermind my passion for the story.
Now, it’s a 10 minute chore each day. That’s it.
A Confession
I know all the above to be true. There’s genuine science behind building on these small goals day after day. The practice is called relentless incrementalism. It’s worked for me over these last couple weeks, and it worked for me when I had massive projects to complete or papers to write in grad school. But I am not an expert.
If I were, I’d have four more novels on the shelf, not four thicks binders in my office stuffed with sticky-notes and bookmarks. But all this goes along with a commitment to my vision for the future, My Big Hairy Goal, and my word of the year. I am determined to make the system work for me.
I’m not following all the steps exactly like I should. There are some things I’m not sure I’ll adopt. I started the Fresh Start on December 27th, and I’ll share in a future story the things I mean to do but still haven’t done. But the bottom line is this: It’s working. I’m making it work. If I stick to the plan and aim for those small goals with the big targets, I’ll feel like Robin Hood every time.
And that’s the magic in it. Every single small goal is a win. And every win makes you feel better about your ability to achieve your goals.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below, and follow the blog for more.
Phillip Davis is the author of Peppermint Lightning, Jack-o-’Lightning, and Justice for the Missing. (Sequel coming in 2023!) He is an elementary school teacher, mental-health advocate, long time NaNoWriMo participant, and member of the Ninja Writer’s community. He writes on the topics of writing, building an author platform, mental health, and self improvement.
