Bite Sized Goals; How goal setting can set you up to fail

You have something in mind that you want to accomplish. Let’s face it--you probably have a ton of things in mind that you want to accomplish. But when you choose that one thing to focus on, what is the one way to ensure that you will get there? Of course, you set goals! 

Goal setting is definitely a key part of the success equation, but how you set those goals will really determine whether you reach your goal or whether it gets stuck in idea mode.

This comes up in many of my coaching sessions. The secret to setting goals, which will help you move the needle, is to set small, bite sized ones. 

Specific and measurable goals that are also realistic.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

You’ve always wanted to write that book. A very successful published writer once told me that there is only one thing you need to do in order to be a writer. You guessed it...WRITE!!! Many of us aspiring writers consistently struggle to do just that. But let’s say you have a goal of publishing a book in two years. You’ve set a long-term goal, and that’s a start. But if you stay there, with just that big,lofty goal of publishing a book and no plan to get there, chances are you will have that goal for the rest of your life. 

Here is a list of some of the things you might be saying to yourself:

• I can’t find the time to work on the book
• I keep telling myself that I will work on the book everyday, but I haven’t done it once yet. 
• I just don’t have time.
• I will get to it.
• I don’t know where to start.

The problem is the lack of a plan. Yes, you have set an overall goal complete with an overall timeline--the book in two years--but you have no road map to get you there. 

The next step is setting bite sized-goals, markers, milestones, objectives--whatever you want to call them--along the way in order to get you from A to Z. Think of it like hiking a well-marked trail that you wouldn’t be able to navigate without the markings along the way. WIth them, you are able to find the end point. Without them, you might die on that mountain wandering in circles.

The milestone goals, or objectives, need to be specific and realistic. 

I recently had a session with somebody who was starting a business while working their 9 to 5 job. As you can imagine, the days easily fill up with life when you are already working full time. Adding to that, the tasks involved in getting a business up and running are definitely considered overtime and can continuously get pushed to the back burner day after day. Before you know it, a year has gone by. And then another.  I asked what time they had set aside to work on the business.

Their answer was “5pm to Midnight”. This is basically saying that any and all time they had outside of work could be spent on the business. Great, right? That sounds like dedication. 

WRONG!

That sounds like the lack of a plan. 

It also sounds unrealistic. Like I said before, the rest of life happens outside of work. You need to eat, take care of things at home, spend time with family, exercise, and do whatever else is needed to keep things in order and to stay healthy.

In the end, having all the time in the world to work on their plan meant that no work was being done at all.

So when I heard “5pm to Midnight,” I knew exactly what we had to do. It reminded me of some very wise advice I once got from my favorite dentist. We were talking about flossing (my achilles heel). He said, “If you’re somebody who is not in the habit of flossing, it is unrealistic to think you will suddenly start flossing every day! Decide what you think you will actually commit to, and then scale up from there. So let’s start with two days a week. Can you do that?”

Of course the answer is yes! I can do two days a week, right? Who can’t?

The same applies to the business plan, writing the book, getting in shape, you name it. Bite-sized and realistic objectives are the key. 

Instead of that unrealistic seven-hour block of time everyday, how about picking two days out of the week in addition to a two to three-hour block of time, marking it off on your calendar, and committing that time towards the goal.

Does that sound more realistic? 

Of course it does!

So now we have settled on a timeline, That is step one. 

Step two is breaking the objective down into manageable pieces. 

Going back to the book example. “I am going to publish a book in two years”. Now THAT is a daunting task. Maybe you successfully block out a few hours a week in which you will get the work done. But you sit down and feel overwhelmed. You have a mountain in front of you. You strain your neck in order to see the top of the mountain, and you stay paralyzed at the bottom, fearing that you will never make it to the top.

But what if, from that same vantage point, as you look up the mountain, you could see the first marker. It’s not that far off, and you know that you could get to it without too much effort. Sure you still need to work for it. It is still walking uphill; you will feel strain in your muscles, and you might feel a bit winded, but there is no doubt in your mind that you can get there in the block of time that you have allotted for the task.

For the book, that marker might be a certain number of words or pages each day. It might be one chapter or even some research. If each time you sit down to work your goal is to reach the next marker, which is in plain sight, before you know it you will have a book. Before you know it, you will be at the top of the mountain.

Just sit with that for a moment. 

How will you feel when you reach that final marker that is perched up there at the top of the mountain?

How will you feel with that finished book in your hand?

How will your life be affected once you have your business up and running? Once you can quit your 9 to 5 job and only do work that means something to you. When you are free to design your own days.

Visualize that. How will you feel? And what will you be doing? Allow yourself to explore those emotions and even come up with a scenario of you celebrating the win. Revisit that scenario and that feeling when you are looking for the motivation to sit down and start the work that you have allotted for that day. That is your why, or one of them anyway.

It only takes a small amount of consistent effort, and you will get up that mountain.