What would you like to do?
How would you like your relationship to look?
How would you like your life to be?
If you don’t have the target in your sights, it is unlikely you are going to hit it when you pull the trigger.
For some people (this seems to be a minority), the creating of a goal or “vision,” is something that happens automatically and even opportunistically. Perhaps they have less inclination towards distraction, or a strong right brain ability to visualise a different reality that they hold in front of them.
For most people however, a framework can be an effective way to set up a goal. Here is a summary of the great Zig Ziglar’s goal setting process:
1. Identify the Goal: This means you write it down. When you write it down, read it back out loud and make sure that it is clear and direct. For example, to “feel better,” and “get my energy back” is not clear. However, to wake up at 6am and have the ability to walk the length of the beach with a smile and spring in my step for 30 days straight certainly encompasses that same “energy” and it is also specific.
2. Identify the Benefits: What’s in it for you? What are the personal benefits? If the goal is big and scary (as they often should be!), then getting clear on how this goal will impact you and your life is important. Without this positive drive, it’s too easy to get bogged down in the difficulties. This can feel selfish, but that’s OK. Be specific.
3. List the Obstacles: Change is difficult, through change you are transforming as a human. There are going to be difficulties. As Pressfield writes in the War of Art, many of these will be forms of “resistance” or fear. However, when we look at our previous patterns, as well as the nature of the goal itself, we can often anticipate the goals and prepare ourselves. It’s important to take off the rose coloured glasses here and be realistic around the challenges you will face.
4. Write our the Skills and Required Knowledge: What are the base level skills or building blocks needed here? This is common with strength, movement or even weight loss. What are the habits, what are the basic movement patterns you need to know about and understand. This is why we “drill the basics” so hard with a lot of the work in the physical domain. Ultimately we need deep experiential knowledge in these areas (although of course it is fine for that knowledge to originally stem from a friend, a book or other source before we then implement in our own lives)
5. Identify the People and Groups to Work With: The power of community is immense. When we have a team of people who are connected by a desire to make things better, and an understanding of what this takes, magic can truly happen. Looking around to find who could really help you with your goal – whether it be technically or emotionally – is the perfect step. For me, when I started to “train” the long course triathlons with professionals who were far ahead of me, my performance jumped immensely. There was at least three decades of experience between two or three training partners.
Who can you connect with?
6. Write out a Plan of Action: For this, I use what’s called a “three act summary” – start at the end, or Act 3, in which you have achieved the goal. What needs to happen there? Then move to Act 2 – the process, what is happening? Finally, come to Act 1 – the here and now. What are the first steps to get rolling. Often this act is the most difficult.
In these acts, we can look at what needs to happen, who comes on board, who is responsible, micro obstacles to watch out for, habits needed, expected challenges, signs of progress (wins) etc.
7. Set a deadline: No deadline, no launch. Without a deadline, there is no tension or accountability. And remember, “the more people who know, the better you go.” Voice this out loud or to others.
