Ultimate, Step and Action goals - The USA approach to personal growth
I’m a big fan of goal setting. Without having something to work towards I worry that I will drift through life and suddenly realise I’ve not achieved what I want to. But when setting my goals I often fall into a common trap where I get carried away in the moment, feel invincible and set myself targets that are too big. Setting goals and not meeting them can de-motivate you, or even prevent you achieving the goal at all, so it’s important to set goals that move you forward at the right pace.
I’ve come across a whole range of techniques for goal setting and have been willing to give them all a try! Everyone is different but I’ve certainly found some are better than others and created my own patchwork approach stealing all the good parts of what I’ve tried.
The first thing I always do is to take the long-term approach. What will really matter way in the future? It’s usually big things like family-life/relationships, career achievements, life experiences, health and financial security - and these are worth bearing in mind in the first instance. We can lose a lot of our time focusing on unimportant aspects of life, so starting with these 5 topics keeps me focused. Then (and this is a bit morbid) I picture myself at the end of my life – what would I want to have achieved in these areas? These are what I call my Ultimate Goals and a great incentive to keep going.
The problem with ultimate goals is they can feel far away and lack any incentive to do something right here right now. They might maintain our long-term focus and provide a foundation of what we want to achieve, but the next thing to do is work on the middle-distance. That’s where “step goals” come in. Working backwards what steps do you need to take along the way? If you want a big farmhouse in the country, you probably can’t afford it now so what are your steps? Do you start with a flat, then a house, then a bigger house and then finally upgrade to the big farmhouse as your ultimate goal? Picturing all these steps means that you can still start your journey. If you can, you could also put timeframes into place too. Buying a flat is a whole lot easier to picture than buying a huge farmhouse in the countryside so Step Goals are important for driving progress.
But often that first step is actually still pretty big. So, we need to think about the immediate future and that is where we set our Action Goals. Action Goals are all about the here and now – they are things that we can already see ourselves doing if we put the effort in. I usually work at an absolute maximum 6 months at a time and write (yes write - I’m old school) a list of the months leaving space for actions next to them all. A blank list is a good way of making your brain work harder for you so don’t worry that it’s not all mapped out in one go, just make a start and let your brain mull it over (see my article on the Zeigarnik effect if you want to understand why this works!).
I then think about where I want to be in 6 months and work backwards to what I’m going to do each month. It might be if it’s a health goal that you want to reach a target time on a 5k run, so how do you build up to that? In August, you could change your pacing, in September you could start running before heading into work, in October you could add an extra run per week and so on. Then crucially, looking at just the one month ahead decide exactly when you can do these things. This is the vital step for me, as sometimes it’s here when I realise, I can’t see how I can make the actions work among the day-to-day reality. If you can’t see a window of opportunity at this stage, the moments will likely pass you by. And then you’ll never do them in real life either! Instead make sure to schedule time where you can commit. And if you really can’t then look at your goal again and design something that does work. Having great intentions of running every day only to miss 4 days in a row is hugely de-motivating. Far better to have set a goal you can be more sure to achieve and plan exactly where you can make it happen.
This doesn’t mean that the goals are easy. They should still stretch you, but there’s no point setting goals that are missed and therefore meaningless. Make them happen and the momentum will move you forward spurring you onto bigger things as you see the results of your successes.
The best thing about Action Goals is you feel the benefit of momentum.
The best thing about Step Goals is you progress in the right direction.
The best thing about Ultimate goals is that they are what’s truly important to you.
My “USA” goal approach is one that has worked for me time and again - and others tell me it works for them too. Despite spelling out “USA” this approach is no American dream! It’s a tried and tested plan that anyone can put into practice!
