- Pick the right strategy. There are dozens of strategies for setting goals, and some of them are just derivatives or hybrids of the other ones. One of the ones that was drilled into my head as I was growing up is SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound. What I've learned is that there is no one strategy to rule them all, every person thinks about their goals in different ways, so pick a strategy that complements how your mind works.
- Monetary and material rewards don't work. A lot of strategies advocate setting rewards for meeting your goals. I am all for this, but I would advocate that monetary or material rewards should be secondary rewards. I've come to find that improvements to my mental state and happiness are far more valuable rewards than stuff. In his book Lost Connections, author Johann Hari identifies nine underlying causes of depression, such as disconnection from meaningful work, and disconnection from nature. Set your goals so that the outcome of the goals improve your happiness. It is far better to do what you love for less pay than to make more and hate your job, even if that job you hate enables you to buy more stuff.
- Physically look at your goals every day. In The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, the author talks about having a vision board and several anecdotes are shown in the movie adaptation. While I no longer buy into the message of "positive thinking is all you need to be successful" (I think this glosses over several other factors), I do believe very sincerely in the vision board concept. One of my goals is to own several rental houses to create passive income so that I can spend less time working and more time with my family. I got on my computer and put together a page with little pictures of houses, exactly how many I want to own, then I captioned it with my exact goal. I printed this page and taped it to the wall next to my desk so that I see it every day. It keeps that goal in the front of my mind and keeps me from changing it on a whim (something I tend to do frequently if I don't physically write things down). Your vision board should correspond to however your mind works and should fit with your strategy from my first point. Maybe instead of pictures you would like a spreadsheet of numbers, or a list with check boxes, or something else. Do what works for you.
- Start with why. My all time favorite speaker and author is Simon Sinek. One of his books, called Start With Why, illustrates the importance of knowing the reasons for doing what we do. Whenever we find work to be meaningless (and therefore unfulfilling), it is often because either we don't know the reason(s) for doing the work, or the reason(s) don't matter to us. This also ties back to Johann Hari's concept of disconnection from meaningful work. When you decide to set a goal, you need to start with a good, strong foundational reason for attaining that goal. Without this, it will become too easy give up later when difficulties arise. My reason for aggressively pursuing passive income is not to become rich, to have lots of money, or to drive a Lamborghini. Those are superficial reasons that really don't matter to me deep down, despite them being "cool". My reason is to supplement my income enough that I can drop to part time work, or even not need to work and can spend more time with my future children. Know your reasons why, and be sure to put those reasons on your vision board with your goals.
- Eliminate unreasoned goals. Setting goals can sometimes be like loading up your plate a buffet. You get back to your table with an overflowing plate, stuff yourself, and still have food on your plate. On multiple occasions I have created pages and pages of goals, only to realize a few weeks later that half of them really didn't matter to me. When setting your goals, go back to point number four. If your reason for that particular goal isn't strong, if that reason won't be with you for at least the time frame of the goal, it's probably not a good goal to set. That being said, there's nothing wrong with your reason being a strong "because I want to". One of my goals is to become fluent at speaking German, and my reason is "because I want to". I had a goal at one time of creating a YouTube channel "because I want to", but that faded and I got rid of that goal. It's okay to set these goals and then eliminate them later. Sometimes we don't realize that our "why" isn't good enough until later on, but at some point you need to eliminate goals you don't care about so that you can focus more energy on goals you do care about.
- Take time for yourself. Burnout is real. You can't spend 12 hours per day, 7 days per week working. Even if your body can handle it, your mind will burn out (there's a reason labor laws exist and why 40 hours per week is generally the work week limit). You should spend time on each of your goals once a week at a minimum, but you also need to rest. Your rest and recovery time will be different than everyone else's, but it is vital to avoiding burn out. Even if you don't feel tired, take a quick break once in while. Once you burn out, it's very difficult to get back into the flow. Head it off before it happens.
These are the six things I have learned over the past several years that I think are most important for setting and achieving goals. Set yourself up for success by finding what works for you and going after what you want. Life isn't about getting rich, pleasing other people, or having stuff. Life is about happiness, fulfillment and experience. Go get it.
