Serving both as an overview of goal setting, this article takes you through a process from reviewing your vision statements to formalizing and locking down goals that are meaningful and actionable.

The difference between a vision, a goal and a plan

Visions, goals, and plans are important tools that are used together. However, each service has a different purpose to help you get from where you are to where you want to be efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, most people skip the vision step entirely, rush into the goals step, and as a result are setting themselves up for failure in the planning stage. A good analogy is taking a trip.

• A vision captures the major decision you make about where you want to go on your journey. Frames, but does not respond to, the details of the trip.
• An objective captures the key decisions related to that journey. When will you leave and come back? Will you fly or drive? What activities do you want to do while you are there?
• A Plan captures the details that will allow you to complete the trip, meeting the goal you set for the trip. What is your flight itinerary? What is your budget? In which hotel(s) will you stay? When will you do the chosen activities during the trip?

It’s important to note that once established, you need to remain fixed on your vision, be slow to change your goals to get there, and yet remain flexible in your plans to achieve the goals. This is called staying fixed on the “What” but flexible on the “How”.

Start by reviewing your vision statements

Do you have a vision for your life? If not, you should take some time to do it. If you already have a set of vision statements, then before you start setting specific goals, now is the time to look at the overall vision statement for your life and the related vision statements for each area of ​​your life, and ask yourself the following questions, making changes if necessary:

• Is it inspiring and can you emotionally commit to achieving it?
• Is it really important to you?
• Is it stretching, but can you still see yourself achieving it?
• Is it really your own vision and not someone else’s (parent, boss, etc.) for you?
• Is it positive and sustainable over time?

Remember there are four parts to a great goal.

Since you’ve already established some clear and compelling vision statements for your life, the next step is to create big goals. A mission statement is made up of four components:

• A mission statement that states the goal in a specific and positive way (often very similar to the vision statement: “I will be independently wealthy”).
• A Measure statement indicating how you will know when you have achieved it (“I will have achieved it when I have a net worth of $5 million”).
• An importance statement stating why it is important for you to achieve this goal (“This is important because I want to focus on working with nonprofits to help them achieve their missions while enjoying traveling the world”).
• A time statement indicating when you would like to achieve it. (“Given where I am, I will achieve this in ten years.”)

Keep in mind that your goal targets don’t have to match 1:1 with the vision statements you’ve created. The reason is that sometimes a vision requires multiple goals to achieve it, and other times a single goal, when achieved, can lead to multiple visions.

Choose one or more vision statements to write three goal statements for

Someone once asked what was the difference between a dream and a goal. The answer: A dream dies at dawn. As you’ve heard, it’s not enough to have a clear idea of ​​what you want (a vision), you need detailed goals and plans to make it happen. By following the step-by-step process outlined below, and available in our My Goals tool available on Percess, spending just a few minutes each day, you’ll build detailed, compelling, and achievable step-by-step goals like you’ve never had before. before in your life. If you’re already an old pro at goal setting, then this is a great opportunity to refresh and refresh your goals to set you up for success in your plans.

Then, after you have reflected on your Vision statements, select up to three visions or desires to make Objective (and ultimately Goal) statements. Why only three? Because no more?

• First, we have limited time and resources. Although we can do things to free up time, as the number of goals we are actively working on at any given time increases, our chances of success decrease. The reason is that as the number of goals increases, it becomes easier to become distracted, overwhelmed, or discouraged. To be clear, each goal you work towards can have several smaller parts. However, try to stick to just three at any given time.
• Second, in any given situation, only a few things really matter, and some potential goals are best achieved after others are achieved (new career after completing necessary training).
• Third, it forces us to focus on truly big goals and not get distracted by small ones.
• Fourth, by focusing on fewer goals, we are more likely to make what we believe to be significant progress sooner. This also helps to maintain our momentum.

Create your Mission Statements

After you have selected the Vision statement(s) you want to use, create three shorter-term objective statements to use as the foundation for your goals. Read them again, reflecting on your individual life area and overall vision statements. Are you really excited to make these three Goals a reality in your life? Once you’ve thought and refined as you’d like, it’s time to turn these objective statements into full-blown goals.

Turn your objective statements into goals

Now, for each one, write below the goal statement your metric, importance, and time statements associated with the goals. Below is an example (note the structure, not the content which may or may not be relevant or resonate with you):

Vision: I want physical health so that I can enjoy the activities I love.

goal

Aim: Dramatically increase my stamina and energy level.

Size(s):

• Conditioning to complete a 10K without stopping.
• Energy to stay awake until 11 pm without getting tired.
• Strength to work in the garden as many times as you want.

Importance: This is important because not exercising the way I need to keep me from fully enjoying my kids, it made me stop doing fun outdoor activities with friends, and it makes me feel tired most of the time. I don’t want to be one of those lonely people, barely able to move when I’m older, having missed out on being a part of great memories when I was younger.

Moment:

• I will start an exercise routine on xx/xx/xxxx
• I’m going to run 10K in yy/yy/yyyy
• I’ll have the energy I want by zz/zz/zzzz

Evaluate and refine your goals

Once you’ve done this for each goal, review them to see if they’re SMART (extendable, measurable, achievable, related, and timed).

• SStretching is important as it’s hard to have an inspiring goal if it’s not stretching you in some way relative to what you’ve accomplished in the past.
• METERMeasurable is important as this will not only give you a benchmark to measure yourself against, but it will also help provide an idea of ​​what may be needed as part of the plan you will build to achieve it.
• INachievable is clearly important, but by achievable we mean simply that it is potentially achievable. How to achieve this will not be established until the planning stage. Use this for a quick reality check here.
• R.Euphoric is a check to make sure this goal is related to your visions and priorities.
• youimed is to give you a sense of urgency and a date by which you want to enjoy the benefits of reaching the goal. Keep in mind that the timing may change a bit as you move through the planning phase and identify the steps needed to achieve the goal.

Once you’ve reviewed the goals, made any changes you want, you should set them aside for a few days and then go back and refine them if you want. This is to make sure they are truly yours and what you want to focus on. Be sure to spend enough time on the Importance statement, as this will help ensure that you have a clear motivation for working towards the goals and will help provide perspective on whether you’ve truly captured the goal in the way you want.

Expand target detail

In this step, we’ll add additional details to your goal that will help guide the development of your plan.

For each goal, ask yourself: To achieve this goal I will need:

• overcome these challenges
• Take advantage of these strengths
• Acquire these knowledge/skills
• Work with these people/organizations

It is important to note that you most likely do not have all the answers to the above questions. The point is to start thinking about what it will take to achieve the goal so you can better think about how to break it down into manageable chunks. Think of this as a first step. You will have additional opportunities to refine it further as you progress and develop your plans. Once you’ve made a first pass, put it aside for today and then review it tomorrow if it’s helpful.

Regarding overcoming challenges, these could be a perceived lack of resources, time, connections, etc. These are items that you would like to address as you progress.

Regarding the use of certain strengths, these are the ones that you bring with you. They can be tangible in the sense of financial resources, etc., emotional in terms of desire, dedication, energy, etc. or functional in terms of skills, habits or connections, etc.

Regarding the acquisition of knowledge or skills, we are always in a process of growth and learning. As you set goals, you may want to add to or improve a part of your skill set. Goal setting is a great opportunity to gain the reason and energy to do it.

Regarding working with other organizations, nothing really great has been done alone. Even Edison had Watson, and today working with other people and groups is even more important. Who do you need to meet or tap into to create a win-win relationship?

Repeat for each target and check quality

For each goal, ask yourself if you can say yes to each of the following statements:

• These goals reflect my core values ​​and vision for my life.
• These goals inspire me and I have fully committed to them.
• I accept full responsibility for the achievement of each goal
• I will make the necessary compensations that will allow me to achieve the objectives.
• I will review each night how my overall day went in relation to my goals.
• I will plan activities for the next day each night that support my goals.

If you can’t truly commit to each of the above statements, then you need to take a step back and further refine your goals or vision for your life. It has taken decades to get to where it is today; spending another day, or even a week, making sure you’re headed in the right direction going forward is worth the effort.

Congratulations!

You have probably now done a better job of creating meaningful goals than 90% of the people who try to do it. Now is the time to think about your plans…