Getting Started Setting Goals

I doubt the concept of setting goals is new to you, but this understanding of it might be. 

We know that goals are an extremely effective way to structure your effort. You set a goal because it either represents a meaningful outcome or it’s the process behind getting a certain desired result. This allows you to more easily figure out the real things you need to spend your time doing, which then drives your behavior and daily activity.

But if you’re setting a goal in a new area that you’ve never tried before, you might encounter some obstacles. If I were to ask you today how many ounces of water you want to drink in a day, you may not know. Or if you wanted to spend less time responding to emails every day, you may not have a clear idea of how much time you’re currently spending in your email.

Of course you can pull from other sources to inform your expectations, but when it comes to setting a goal that first step might feel pretty arbitrary and random. And that is totally fine! 

You don’t need to wait to have a perfectly defined and thought through goal before getting started. Again, a goal is meant to orient your efforts. So if you have a loose idea that gets you moving in the right direction, that’s mission accomplished! But a lot of people are slow to take those first few steps because they want their goals to be right.

Now here’s why this works. As you begin pursuing your goals, you start picking up more reference points and understanding the details of the context better. You start noticing that you’re drinking 2 or 3 bottles of water a day. You check the clock and get a better sense for how much time you’re actually spending on emails. 

Your experience in pursuit of the first, educated guess of goal gives you the insight you need to make your goal that much more informed. And then once you know better, you do better and you adjust it. As my mentor Jim Bunch says, “Goals are written in sand not in stone”.

So my encouragement to you through this is to just get started. Even if you feel like you might be missing the mark or off base, having a goal in place gets you on the path to uncovering the specificity you’re looking for. 

Another way of putting it - As you get closer to your goals, they get clearer. It’s not that you always need clarity before taking action, it’s that you should always be intentional about pursuing more clarity. And sometimes throwing yourself in the deep end is exactly what you need to accomplish that.

Now as it relates to monthly goal setting, I want to help you with this. If you’ve ever thought about having a monthly process where you review your past goals, set new goals, and determine the timelines to achieve those goals, I have a step-by-step process you can use to have more structure around your efforts. Getting in the routine of doing things like this will bring your daily activity to elite levels, which will help you begin to generate elite results.

I’m hosting an hour-long free workshop on Monday, May 1st, where you’ll leave with exactly that - a full plan that will motivate you and hold you accountable to making May the most impactful month of your year! You can register to attend this live May Momentum event by clicking here!