Go to the White House for dinner.IT IS EASY TO keep wandering down different paths when you are looking to improve your performance. Often we try many different things, questioning if the path we are on is the right one, and our doubt and uncertainty make us take a wrong turn. That is why setting goals is important to success, and it is the first component of our performance model.
You might think setting goals is easy. We all have things in life we want, whether it is getting that big promotion, owning our own homes, or running a 5K. Actually reaching those goals is much more difficult. Having a systematic goal-setting process and plan encourages people to keep their eyes on the prize. Striving to get to that end goal should be viewed as an ongoing process of continuous change and adaptation.
Think of setting and achieving goals as more of a GPS system than a roadmap for your life. A roadmap is a static object, but a GPS system constantly adapts. It alerts when you might encounter traffic, road construction, or other hazards and delays, and it will reset your path for you. The same is true for performance at work, at home, or in sports. Your boss may change, the corporation may be restructured, you might get assigned to a new team, or you might have an injury that upsets your ability to practice. Understanding and living day-to-day with clear goals provides the passion and motivation to persevere, even when obstacles get in the way. A journey starts with knowing where you want to end up. An integral part of any lasting goal-setting process is the idea of a mission. Having a mission is much more than just setting a goal. It is deciding what you want out of your life. The approach to setting your target outcome identifies what you really want to accomplish and helps you figure out the inclusive smaller steps needed to get there while maintaining the positive mindset necessary for ensuring enduring determination.
Goal setting has been a part of my personal strategy for success for a long time. I realized at a young age that having something to work toward helped keep my mind on the task at hand and get to the end result faster than I probably would without a clear goal.
When I was a boy in Hungary after World War II, part of my father’s job was driving American soldiers around. While he was focused on earning the money that would let us emigrate to America, I was inspired by the soldiers’ bravery and camaraderie and became focused on one day attending West Point. After we moved to Pennsylvania, I told my high school guidance counselor about this dream. He dismissed it, saying I would never achieve it. I nevertheless applied my senior year—and I was rejected. I did not have the necessary nomination. But I did not give up. After two years at Valley Forge Military Academy & College, I applied again, now knowing what was necessary for the application process. I was accepted. It was one of the defining moments of my life.
Later, following my tour of duty in Vietnam, I was assigned to attend graduate school for two years to earn my master’s degree in preparation for my role on the faculty at West Point. While there, my faculty adviser offered me the opportunity to earn a doctorate in psychology and leadership in the time the army had allotted for me to do my graduate work. It meant a much heavier workload than the other graduate students had, including advanced research and data collection. I knew this was an opportunity I could not pass up, so I seized the moment. I set my goal, worked hard, and returned to West Point with a Ph.D. in just two and a half years.
Setting goals is the first step in achieving success, and sometimes the goals you set can end up being a turning point in your life or career. You may have heard of Lou Holtz, one of the winningest football coaches in American college history. He had a great career, but he started out young and inexperienced just like the rest of us. Part of what made Lou Holtz so successful was that he learned early on in his career the importance of setting goals.
In 1966, Lou Holtz served as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina.1 He was there for one year when the head coach left for another position, and Holtz found himself without a job. His wife was pregnant with their third child. Instead of complaining about their dire situation, his wife gave him a book, The Magic of Thinking Big, by David Schwartz. The book said if you are bored in life, if you do not wake up with a burning desire to get up and do something in the morning, the main problem is you do not have any goals. To be really accurate at goal setting, you need to take a piece of paper and pencil and write down all the things you wish to do. So Lou started a list, which included the following:
Go to the White House for dinner.
Go on The Tonight Show.
Meet the Pope.
Go to football conferences and win championships.
Shoot a hole in one.
Coach Notre Dame.
There were 101 other items on Holtz’s list. Full of excitement, Holtz showed them to his wife, telling her, “We’re going to do every one of them.” She said, “You need another one: 108—get a job.”
Holtz achieved at least some of his goals. Since making that list in 1966, he has taken over five college coaching situations. He never inherited a winning football team, yet by his second year of coaching, each of his teams went to a bowl game. He coached Notre Dame, and he even made it on The Tonight Show.
This man’s story is incredibly inspiring, and it captures the magic of having goals. They not only give us something to work toward but can provide us with the motivation and energy to keep going, even when times are tough.
The first step in goal setting is to define your outcome goals. These are the big things you want to strive for in life, such as success in your career, running a marathon, writing a book, or traveling on all seven continents. These are goals that take time to be accomplished and cannot be rushed.
When setting your outcome goals, remember the acronym SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal does. Answer the six “W” questions to make sure your goal is specific. Who: Determine who is involved. What: Define what you want to accomplish. Where: Identify a location. When: Establish a time frame. Which: Identify requirements and constraints. Why: Specify the reasons, purpose, or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward attaining your goal. Measuring your progress helps you stay on track, reach target dates, and experience achievement.
You can attain almost any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. You develop the attitude, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. When you write your goals down, you build your self-image, seeing yourself as worthy of these goals, and you develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.
A goal must represent an objective toward which you are willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually might have seemed easy at the time, simply because they were a labor of love. Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe it can be accomplished.
A goal should be grounded within a certain time frame. If you want to lose ten pounds, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” will not work. If you anchor it within a specific time frame, say, by May 1, you have set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.
There are seven simple steps to effectively set specific goals.
Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions:
What accomplishments, achievements, or experiences would be worth your best effort?
What would you attempt if you knew it was impossible to fail?
What would you go for if you could put your heart and soul into just one thing?
Evaluate your current situation. What do you like about it? What would you change?
Remember that you do not have to change everything all at once. That can be overwhelming. Look over your list of possibilities and pick one that you feel most excited about. Start there and save the list for the second round, after you achieve the first item.
You need to grow and develop your goal behaviors. Keep raising the bar with the progress you make and pushing yourself to the next level as you step closer to your final goal.
Breaking your overall goal into smaller chunks makes it seem more doable and keeps your motivation high as you reach these mini-goals along the way.
Make sure the goal you are working on is something you really want, not just something that sounds good. Then find creative ways to stumble across that goal on a daily basis.
Review, evaluate, adjust, and amend your action plan on a regular basis so you can keep moving in a positive direction. If it is too easy, challenge yourself by increasing the workload or difficulty. If you are struggling, identify the obstacles getting in your way and revise your approach and what it is going to take to get you there.
The Apex goal-setting process is a tool for identifying what you want to accomplish. It gives you the critical steps needed to get there while maintaining the positive mindset essential for enduring determination. Possessing a list of goals and objectives is not enough. It does not activate the energy needed to see them through to completion. They must be deliberately connected to our daily thoughts and self-talk, which is why we incorporate positive affirmations such as “I am an effective leader” or “I deserve to be happy.” For example, if you want to work out in the mornings more often, you could put a Post-it note on your alarm clock/phone every night that says something like “You got this!” or “You are healthy and fit!” If you want a promotion, you could make sure to have a reminder to talk to someone outside your department at work every day to gain exposure and network. When we see our goals and hear our goals, we are reminded to actually do something to move toward them right now.
Goals give individuals control in situations where they have little. For instance, a low-level employee cannot change the large company where he is not enjoying working simply through his actions. But he can change himself. He can make himself more marketable, more appealing; he can achieve sales goals and get good performance reviews. He can become a better public speaker, learn new computer skills, network with other workers inside and outside the company. Having an identified objective—for example, to get a new job—can help by directing our attention to a specific task, mobilizing and prolonging our effort and intensity, encouraging resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, and facilitating the development of new problem-solving strategies.
Two important steps in setting outcome goals are the following:
1.Have a clear vision and mission, and be able to articulate both.
2.Be able to translate that mission into outcome, performance, and process goals.
The process takes you from your “dream” to clear actions that have to be taken to reach your goals. It involves developing the necessary commitment, evaluating potential barriers to goal attainment and working through them, constructing action plans that take you step-by-step toward your goal, obtaining objective feedback, evaluating progress, and reinforcing achievement through positive affirmation aids, such as “I am in control of what I think, say, and do,” and “Each day I get stronger.”
These are the things you need to do to help you reach your outcome goal. These are specific areas where you need to focus that will help you get where you want to be.
Once you have set your performance goals, it is time to think of the process that you have to go through to meet them. What skills, abilities, and knowledge do you need? These are things you do on a daily or weekly basis to achieve performance goals.
When setting goals, remember the following:
Small goals are more important than big goals.
All goals are real goals, and they must be written down.
A goal should be written as an end state and as positive end statements (statements representing what or how you will be when you complete or achieve that goal, i.e., My outcome goal is completing a marathon in under three hours).
Let’s take a look at Dave’s goals as an example. Dave’s outcome goal is to get a promotion to regional sales manager. His performance goals are what he needs to do to get the promotion. Dave decides to refine his presentation skills, reach a set sales goal, and achieve high customer service ratings.
Process goals are the steps Dave takes in order to make his performance goals. He takes a class at his local library on PowerPoint to learn new tricks to making a great presentation. He practices sample dialogues with his other team members to make more sales. They meet weekly, over lunch, and role-play. Finally, he spends hours learning the product line and delivery system accurately to improve his customer service skills.
All of this works together to help Dave reach one outcome goal: a promotion.
Here are two other examples of processes and performance goals that lead to accomplishing an outcome goal.
First Performance Goal: Generate a Positive Environment for My Children
Process goals:
I spend time individually with each child.
I manage my stress levels daily.
I accept my children as they are daily.
I smile as much as possible around my children.
I review positive things every week with my children.
Second Performance Goal: Strengthen My Marriage
Process goals:
I control my body language daily.
I schedule a date night once a week.
I communicate effectively.
I show compassion.
By setting goals and being mindful of his actions, this husband and father was able to reach his outcome of having a secure and happy family.
Here is another example of setting goals in practice and how you would go about setting up your performance and process goals.
Note: if you are starting with a C average and want to move straight into an A average, this might be a little unrealistic and too fast a turnaround time. The goal must be attainable. So your first outcome goal would be to get a B average if you are starting with a C.
Performance goals:
I manage my time and get organized (time management).
I am prepared and present for every class (class participation).
I turn in my assignments on time (effective learning and study skills).
Process goals:
Write a daily checklist—look at very specific action-oriented behaviors, and dial in on what it is going to take each and every day to get to the performance goal and finally to achieve your outcome goal. Lay the groundwork specifically.
I keep a calendar for when assignments are due.
I raise my hand to participate in class every session.
I assign myself times to study and read what I need to.
Look through those checklists and assess yourself honestly. Say you were late turning in assignments twice because you stayed up with your friends and pushed the snooze button one too many times. If that is the case, you might resolve not to go out on school nights. You might not have allocated enough time for studying, and gotten a C when you were striving for a B. If so, make notes to study longer in preparation for the next test. The process is all about constantly evaluating yourself and doing what you need to do to get back on track.
Your list of goals and objectives must be deliberately connected to your ongoing thoughts and become a part of the daily “chatter” in your head. There is a systematic method for doing exactly that. Transforming performance objectives, which in their simplest form are actions, into daily thoughts connects what we are thinking with what we are doing. It is the way the mind–body connection operates best.
Transforming goals into affirmations, which is something positive that you tell yourself, helps connect what we are doing with what we are thinking. For instance, Dave would not want to be practicing his sales presentations and doing his other process goals, all the while thinking, “I’m going to be stuck in this job forever.” He needs to have positive affirmations to bolster all his hard work. You can help create a positive mindset by recording affirmations onto a CD or on your phone and listening to them regularly. This practice mimics the way young children learn language at home—hearing it repeatedly creates new neural pathways in the brain for success.
If the key to achieving goals is getting into the right mindset, how do you write effective affirmations to get you there? An affirmation should always be about what you want as opposed to what you do not want. It should feature the following elements:
Personal inclusion: You should be an integral part of the affirmative reminder.
Present tense: State the behavior as if you were already doing it or it has been achieved.
Use “feeling” words: Certain words evoke your emotions more than others.
Practicality: Use realistic standards like “consistently, “regularly,” and so on, and do not use inflexible ones that speak of perfection, such as “always,” “every time,” and so on.
Do not compare yourself with others: Do not say, “I’m going to beat Trish to the top.” Instead, use a standard for comparison, not the behavior or achievement of others.
Sustainable action: It requires continuity and a period of time to do it, not a one-off action.
Here are some examples of positive affirmations:
I am in control of what I think, say, and do.
My thoughts stay in the moment.
My breathing is deep and relaxed.
I allow myself time to grow into the role.
I create an organized workday.
I eat healthy meals.
I am interested in what others have to say.
I am an effective leader.
I persevere.
I advocate for myself, what I want, and what I need.
I am successful in life and work.
I am positive.
I am confident.
Can the power of positive thinking really get us through, even when our physical strength is compromised? The answer is yes. One of the most amazing hiking stories of all time is proof of just how powerful the brain can be. Climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were attempting to climb the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes when Simpson slid on a glacier and crushed his tibia. Yates could have left him there to die, but instead he chose to try to take him with him, and that choice led to an even more disastrous event. Tied together, Alpine-style, the men were making their way down the mountain when Simpson slid and fell off a cliff. Still tied together, the hikers were fifty feet apart. Yates could not hear Simpson’s yells over the wind, but he felt the weight of his partner’s body and went through every possible scenario in his head to try to save Simpson. In the end, with hypothermia setting in, he knew the only thing he could do was cut the rope. He was sure his friend was dead from the fall or from exposure by now.
But Simpson was not dead. He plummeted the rest of the way down, landing in a thirty-foot crevasse. In his book Touching the Void, he writes that he could have easily given up then. But thinking about dying there, all alone, was unbearable. A “sickening sense of loneliness” overcame him, and it was what kept him going. He crawled on his stomach through the crevasse until he saw light at the end, and he finally made it out. From there he had a six-mile hike to base camp, a distance that seemed overwhelming. “And then it occurred to me that maybe I should set definite targets. I started to look at things and think right, if I can get over to that crevasse over there in 20 minutes, that’s what I’m going to do . . . If I got there in 22 or 24 minutes, I was upset almost to the point of tears. It became obsessive. I think I knew the big picture was so big I couldn’t deal with it.” He hopped and crawled more than five miles. “Once I decided I was going to get to the rock in 20 minutes, I was going to bloody well do it. And it would help me, because I would get halfway through the distance and I would be in such pain that I couldn’t bear the thought of getting up and falling again, but then I’d look at the time and think, ‘I’ve got to get there.’ It seemed like there was a very cold, pragmatic part of me that was saying you have to do this, this and this if you’re going to get there. It was quite insistent.”2 Eventually he made it back to base camp, and Simpson and Yates made it back home, together.
Simpson clearly used his mental strength to overcome the physical hardships he was facing. And it was through setting attainable, measurable, and realistic goals that he was able to reach the final goal of making it safely back to base camp.3