Watch: Anna Geary and friends on achieving your goals one at a time
Put your future success in good hands — your own, says lifestyle coach .
We are all guilty of wanting to replicate that which we see others achieving, and often feel pressure to follow suit. Running a marathon, losing weight, changing career, “getting on the property ladder” before you are 30 all spring to mind. There is so much truth in the saying, ‘comparison is the thief of joy’. Goal setting will only be successful if your goals mean something to you!
When deciding on goals, you need to think about what drives you. What gets you up in the morning? It is also important to think about your big picture.
Will this goal feed into your long-term plan?
When I was a teenager I planned to travel during my 20s, because everyone else seemed to be doing the same, but this didn’t fit with my long-term goal of playing for the senior Cork camogie team. This meant I had to revise my plans and, as a result, I didn’t go on a J1 to the US. The world would still be there in my 30s, 40s, and 50s, but my speed wouldn’t stay with me forever. So the first step in goal setting is acknowledging where you are now. The next step is about looking at where you want to be.
For lasting change, surround yourself with people who set realistic goals and constantly work towards them. Goals without plans are just wishes. These kinds of people will not inspire or help you reach your goals.
Most people set an intention/outcome and try to work towards it. That is great, but by doing this, you are only still halfway there. The outcome is important, but the ‘process’ is the key to success. The process involves identifying the skills you need, the appropriate timeline, the resources required (people or otherwise), and the method needed to achieve your goal.
Writing down your goals is a simple but effective part of the achievement process. It triggers a different part of the brain and helps with taking ownership. When you own your goals, you are mostly likely to fight for them
In one of my earlier columns, I spoke about habits. Stephen Covey’s award-winning book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, connects habits with goal setting. One of his habits was to ‘start with the end in mind’. What is it you really want to achieve? As a lifestyle coach, I would encourage a ‘scan’ of all the different aspects of your life — business, friends, family, spiritual, health.
Analyse these areas and rate them out of five. Choose the one that is the top priority and set a corresponding goal. Notice, I said choose one goal. Often, we can make the mistake of setting lots of varied goals at the same time.
We have all fallen into this trap before — having too many goals means none of them get our undivided attention.
When I was playing for Cork, at the start of every year I set myself goals. It was an essential ritual for me. I would break them down into on and off the field categories. My ‘on the field’ goals might focus on getting fitter/faster/stronger/leaner or improving certain skills. My ‘off the field’ goals related more to my relationships with players, my decision-making under pressure, punctuality, and discipline. I used a priority system and dealt with them one at a time.
Once I felt I had made improvements in one area, I moved onto the next one. This helped me stay focused and feel accomplished throughout the season. It’s a similar concept when studying for exams. Imagine revising all different topics at the same time; it wouldn’t be an effective use of your time. Choose one, stick to it until you feel you have a good grasp of it, then move on.
Put your future success in good hands — your own.
Five principles of effective goal setting
Dr Edwin Locke, the father of modern goal setting, identified the following principles, of effective goal setting which can help you to set realistic and achievable goals.
Unclear goals are one of the biggest stumbling blocks to effective goal setting. Effective goals are clear and specific. When goals are vague, such as “I want to get fitter”, then they are not motivating or easy to achieve, as you don’t have a clear picture in your head of where you need to go. An example of a clear goal is, ‘I want to be able to run 10k without stopping in the next three months’.
Research shows challenging goals are better for you. If the goal is too easy, you will not get a sense of accomplishment upon completion and may not be motivated to set future goals. If you know you have a difficult challenge ahead, you will increase your effort, once it is within the realms of possibility for you to achieve it. When tackling challenging goals, you must believe that what you are doing is worthwhile and that the outcome matters.
You must ‘buy in’ to what you are doing before the task is fully accepted or ‘owned’. If you do not feel an internal ownership, you may not apply the work ethic required, even if there is an external motivation, ie, a financial raise in a working context.
You don’t just set goals and review them at the proposed completion date. You must track your progress, get feedback, and adjust along the way. This ensures you remain on track and will keep you motivated. Having a ‘goal buddy’ is useful: A person striving to reach a similar goal so you can keep each other on track. If you are not making progress, change the plan first, not the goal.
You can manage this by breaking complex tasks down into smaller sub-goals. This creates a roadmap to your final (bigger) goal.
We did this with Cork every season. We had milestones we wanted to reach during the year: Winning the league, the provincial title, the first round of championship, then come first in our championship group. This allowed us to feel the positive effects of achieving goals together. When the going got tough, this gave us the motivation to keep going to achieve the main goal of winning the All-Ireland title, because we looked back at the mini successes already achieved during the season.
Anna Asks
I chatted with Daniel Davey about goal setting.
Daniel is the nutritionist for the Leinster Rugby team and newly-crowned champions, the Dublin senior footballers, as well as being the owner of www.FoodFlicker.com.
We discussed the reasons why people set themselves unrealistic goals, often setting themselves up for failure from the outset. He gave some interesting insights into why we try to make drastic changes in all different aspects of our lives, often all at once.
He agreed that people can feel pressurised into constantly changing and improving.
As he whipped up a simple but tasty dish before my very eyes (I was his competent sous-chef, obviously), he gave me his thoughts on how to be successful when goal setting.
There was such value in Daniel’s logical and practical advice.
Check out the full interview on my Instragram (IGTV) or social media at @annagcork
Daniel’s handle is @foodflicker_official. It’s packed with tasty recipes and expert knowledge.
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