Setting Goals in the New Year

Even When Life Gets in the Way | #8

My new year was off to an unexpected start. I started feeling sick the day after Jan 1st and then a few days later tested positive for covid (after a few initial negative test results). My son also became sick so the two of us self isolated the entire first week and a half of January. Most of my plans to reset the year and start with new habits and systems went out the door. Plans for waking up earlier, regular exercise, and cooking healthy meals were hard to do while sick in bed. Both of us have finally recovered so I’m now getting back on track.

Since a lot of people try to set up new goals or habits at the beginning of the year, I thought it would be helpful to share my process even with the delayed start due to covid. Sometimes life just gets in the way of your plans, and that’s okay. You can always restart, change direction, or take a break. It’s your life, and you are in the driver’s seat. Rid yourself of any guilt or self-judgement if you go off course every once in awhile.

Before you plan forward, it’s helpful to first look back. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing an annual self reflection before setting new goals for the new year. There are a variety of stats thrown out there on how 80% or 90% of people give up on their new year’s resolutions within the first month or two. I’d like to change that stat by helping you write better goals and creating a plan.

Before you start setting goals, it’s important to understand what is most important to you and why you are setting the particular goal. If you did not read my Self Reflection for Busy People issue from last month, read it first and do the short exercises before you go any further in this article.

Why Do People’s New Year’s Resolutions (Goals) Fail?

From my experience, here are the reasons followed by examples of why people’s goals or new year’s resolutions end up failing within the first month of the year:

• The goal is “too big” and overwhelming

  • I want to switch my job function and industry and make double the money that I make now. (this seems quite complex and where does one start this process).

• The goal is not realistic

  • I will wake up every day including weekends at 5am to workout (even though I not am a morning person and go to bed at midnight).

• There is not enough specificity to the goal

  • I want to be more healthy. (there are many ways to be healthy).

• There is no deadline or way to track the progress of the goal

  • I want to lose 10 pounds. (by when? how?)

• The goal is not a priority

  • I want to change careers even though I just received a promotion to a new role and am in the process of buying a new home (what is most important right now?)

Why Do We Set Goals?

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

-Yogi Berra

Goals determine your direction. I’ve noticed that when I have written down a goal or said it out loud to someone, it has led me to focus on it and manifest it to happen. For example, last year, I made the goal that I wanted to be a “writer” even though I didn’t fully know how I would do that. I thought maybe I would write a book. It felt intimidating until I spoke to a friend who had published a book with the help of a book coach. After more research and reflection, I realized I was not clear on what I wanted to write about.

I then discovered an 8 week writing fellowship and being a part of that program led me to start this newsletter which is still going strong 7 months later. I wonder if I would have started this newsletter or my writing practice without joining that program? Maybe I will write that book one day; but this newsletter is a good way to practice and see if writing a book is something I want to invest my time in down the road.

I have also created income related goals and have achieved them. One year, I made the goal that I wanted to earn an income above six figures. Focusing on that goal during a past job search led me to make that goal a reality. That taught me an important lesson. What we focus on, is what we can make happen.

Goal Setting Frameworks

There are a number of frameworks out there for people to set goals. I am highlighting two methodologies that I have found most useful for me personally.

SMART Goals

The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) framework for writing goals is one of the most popular methods in writing goals. I don’t recommend starting off with this framework but to incorporate it later once you break down your larger goals into shorter term goals. Here is a graphic that shows what makes up a SMART goal:

Image Credit

Systems & Habits

James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits, is a big proponent of using systems and habits rather than setting traditional goals. In James Clear’s Goal Setting Guide, he shows how to create systems to help you achieve your goals. Research has shown that you are 2x to 3x more likely to stick to your goals if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you will perform the behavior.

Image Credit

He also talks about “habit stacking” which involves adding in a new habit to “before” or “after” an established habit. For example, if you make coffee every morning when you wake up without thinking about it, you can stack a second habit to follow your coffee making. If your goal was to write more this year, you can make a habit of writing for 20 minutes while you drink your morning coffee.

Step 1: Brainstorm & Prioritize Your Short & Long Term Goals

Let’s get started with your process of goal setting. Download the Satya Creates Goal Setting Workbook if you want a template to use for this process.

• The first part of this process is to write down everything you want to be, do, or have three months from now, one year from now, and five or more years from now. I learned this method from a workshop taught by the founder of Ness Labs, Anne-Laure Le Cunff. I liked this brainstorming method and the fact that it was a blend of short term and long term goals while focusing on all the things you want to be, do or have in your life.

• Set a timer for 10-15 minutes to brainstorm these three lists. Do not edit yourself or try to write them in any specific way. Don’t worry about SMART goals or any frameworks right now.

• Once the timer goes off, look at everything you wrote out and circle the top three to five things that stood out for you.

Here is an example of my three lists. As you can note, I did not break these down yet. I wanted to get them out of my head first. The self reflection that I did last month was helpful since it helped me understand what areas of my life I was feeling unsatisfied in and what I was motivated to improve.

Image from Satya Creates Goal Setting Workbook

Step 2: Rewrite into SMART and Short Term Goals

Next, review the things that you circled across all of your three lists. If your goals are large like mine and need to be broken down, go ahead and start to do that; especially, if you have circled goals from your one year or five or more years from now lists. Break down any long term goals into multiple short term goal. Think about what you would need to do in the next three months to reach that goal one day. Add any relevant short term goal to your three month goal list and circle it if it still feels important to you.

Here is an example of me breaking down one of my larger goals above:

Image from Satya Creates Goal Setting Workbook

Step 3: Break Down Goals Into Action Steps & Systems

“A goal without a plan is only a dream.”

-Brian Tracy

In this step of the process, review the things that you circled in your three month list. Next, choose one goal from your three month list and break it down into specific action steps, systems, or habits that can be weekly or daily.

Repeat this for any goals you have circled in your three month list. Here is an example of what one goal broken down into specific action steps can look like:

Image from Satya Creates Goal Setting Workbook

If you have a goal where you would rather create a regular system or habit to reach it, here is an example of that:

Image from Satya Creates Goal Setting Workbook

When creating these systems or daily/weekly habits, make sure that it is realistic and fits your lifestyle.

Step 4: Track Goals & Build In Accountability

“What gets measured, gets managed” is a popular saying in the business world. The only way to know if you are making progress on your goals is to put in systems in place that allow you to track them. There is a wide variety of ways that people track their goals and measure their progress. I’ve experimented with a number of ways and failed at many and am still working on perfecting the process for myself.

These days, I live by my Google calendar, annual planner, and post-it notes for tracking my goals, action steps, and progress. I need to schedule in time in my Google calendar to make sure I reach those non-urgent but important goals. Time blocking in your calendar will only be helpful if you actually stick to the plans. I’ve heard from some people that still skip over those non-urgent tasks so sometimes it helps to set a timer for 5 min to 20 min to jumpstart you into working on it.

I am a big proponent of building in accountability to help you stay on track with systems, habits, or general goals you set. I sometimes need a deadline or a person to help out with accountability. My Saturday writing group is a great example of something that has helped me stay on top of writing weekly. We meet every Saturday at 11am ET for one hour. For the first 10 minutes, we catch up and talk about what we are working on. Then one of us puts on some low key music, while we mute ourselves and work on our writing while staying on the Zoom video.

I’ve realized for me that it is sometimes hard to get started with something but once I get going, I can continue on. When I wrote this newsletter, I started writing it during my writing group’s Saturday Zoom sessions but then continued writing for another hour after we ended the session since I was on a roll.

Accountability is a reason why people tend to hire coaches. It’s an investment but if you have the extra funds and need the outside accountability, I highly recommend looking for a coach that specializes in the area of your life you want to improve. A coach will help you clarify your goals, action steps, and systems/habits and then check in with you on a regular basis to keep you motivated and help you troubleshoot whenever you get stuck or off course.

There are many ways to build in accountability. You can join or create a book club; take a class with an instructor and other students; or buddy up with someone who is working on the same goal and check in weekly. Anything that creates structure and deadlines can be helpful in keeping you accountable.

Here are some questions you can use to think through on how you will stay accountable to the goals you set for yourself:

• What habits or behaviors would I need to cultivate to reach this goal

• What current habits or behaviors keep me from achieving from reaching these goals?

• What support do I need? Who or what could help me?

Give Yourself Permission To Revisit and Readjust Goals

You can always make changes to your goals, systems, or strategy! I’ve learned that it doesn’t help me to dwell on the fact that I missed a deadline or didn’t reach a goal that I had set up for myself. For example, when I started this newsletter last June, my goal was to have it out the by the 15th of every month. When I missed that deadline, I decided to readjust that goal to get my newsletter out by the end of the month. I have been consistent since I changed that goal.

The lesson here is to be kind to yourself and it’s okay to “fail” or mess up. Sometime it means that the goal is not a priority while other times, it’s just because life gets in the way.

Next Steps

• Once you finish writing out your 3 month goals and action steps or systems, continue doing this for the next 3 months at a time. Some people do their goal setting monthly or quarterly. You can choose the timeline that works best for your work style. Here are both of my workbooks if you need templates to help you: Self Reflection Workbook + Goal Setting Workbook.

• If you decide to do it for the entire year, make sure you check in quarterly to see if those goals are still the same or if you need to make any adjustments.

• Use one or more tools to track your goals and progress. Here are some of the most popular tech tools that people use for tracking their goals: Airtable, Notion, Evernote, Trello, and Google Calendar / G-Suite. If you prefer a less “techie” approach, here are some beautiful Journals, Notebooks, Planners. I personally use both tech and paper!

• Lastly, if you want be inspired and dive deeper into this topic, check out these Ted Talks on Goals.

I hope this was helpful to anyone who needed a better way to set goals. Thanks again for being a reader of my newsletter!