Goal Setting: An Exercise in Neuroticism
New Year approaches, and I’m sure many of us will be glad to see the back of 2020. I know I will be. I had great hopes for this year, but so much has been delayed or derailed. Still, progress from previous years - I’m being kinder to myself about not having achieved everything I wanted and maintaining quite a pragmatic view of the situation.
Setting annual goals is a key part of performance sporting environments, but this was the first year I tried to apply it to things I wanted to achieve beyond sport. I’m not sure how normal it would be to go through a formal goal-setting process for my personal life (though I’m tempted to suggest it to the husband just for the entertainment value) but I have found setting goals for my writing to be a useful process and one I think I will continue in the future.
I’ll be straight with you - setting writing goals was a major step. It’s something I put off for a long time, because it was too much like the rest of my life and writing has been my escape from that for a long time. I have an intimate understanding of the reasons and benefits for goal-setting, and that rational part of my brain has been looking down her nose at me for having not done it already. But there’s also an impulsive, creative inside me insists on ignoring good advice and keeps whining about how it’s too much like work and she just wants to write.
There’s also a driven and determined part of me that gave the creative a kick up the arse and pointed out some hard truths. First, that I want to make a career out of writing and that means one day it will be work. If I want to give myself the best chance at making that dream a reality, I have to treat it like a job. Second, I possess the tools, skills and attributes necessary to have been highly successful in my field and most of those are transferrable. I’m shooting myself in the foot (if you’ll pardon the pun) by not making best use of them. The creative still doesn’t like it, but she’s quit whining for now.
Because goal-setting is probably the single-most important process to go through when working towards an outcome. “Why?” I hear you ask. Three simple reasons:
1. Planning. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there? Clearly defined goals provide structure and direction to day-to-day work.
2. Review. Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re on the right track, or on track at all. Goals, particularly short and medium-term goals, give opportunities to review along the way and make adjustments if necessary.
3. Motivation. A long-term goal can often seem too big, too far-fetched to be achievable. They are also, by definition, a long way in the future. By breaking it down into bite-size chunks, it makes the task seem less daunting and helps with focus.
In my experience, without clearly defined goals, navigating those three aspects of a project can be almost impossible - particularly that last one. It’s possible to achieve an outcome without doing the first two, but it’s inefficient and as the daughter of an accountant and a software engineer (yes, I am the black sheep of the family) I find inefficiencies disturbing.
But what do I mean by a clearly defined goal? Let’s be real here - that dream of becoming an author… nebulous, to put it politely. Vague and woolly, if I’m being more honest. What does it mean? Does it mean just publishing a book, or does it mean that writing is my full-time occupation? How am I defining what it means to become an author?
And how will I know when I’ve achieved it? Is it just writing the book? Publishing it? Decent sales? If so, what does decent mean? If it’s making enough money, how much is enough to deem it successful? In short, how am I measuring becoming an author?
Some other things to consider - is it achievable? Can I actually do this, given the inevitable limitations that every human being has? Do I have the time? The cash to invest in my writing? Is it relevant? Is it worthwhile? Is now the right time to do this? Does it align with other things going on in my life? How long is it going to take? Do I need to break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks?
You get my point. Now I suspect some of you will have come across what I’m about to say next before. The perceptive among you might have even spotted it already. What I’m talking about are SMART goals, which stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Based
When I first came across this acronym, I thought it reeked of management and I hated it. Along with words like culture and values, it was everything that was wrong with my environment. Managers who knew nothing about me or my sport came in and spewed this jargon they’d learned on some course without understanding what it meant. But, over time, I began to understand what it looked like in practice (even if they didn’t) and see the benefits, and now I’ve transitioned into a management role I’m applying the same principles - though I still try to avoid the jargon I so loathed as an athlete.
I was never patient enough to go through the entire SMART process every time, but I’ve also had a lot of experience in this area, so I apply these principles to my goals without thinking about it. Most of what I come up with will satisfy at least two or three of those criteria without much effort. The one I struggle with most is the achievable (because reasons), but often that’s a reflection on the time-based bit needing tweaked. Progressing from a blank page to a finished 700-page book isn’t achievable in my current circumstances if my time limit is a couple of months. Change that time span to a year though, and now it’s looking a bit more realistic.
The other key part for me is some sort of profiling - understanding areas of strength and weakness, which informs priorities. It feeds into that planning and review part. Once you know where you’re going, you need to know where you are now in order to figure out how you’re going to get there. And when you’re reviewing, whether that’s at the beginning, middle or end of a project, you need to assess progress. That means understanding what is going well and what needs improved. I can’t formulate goals without this information - particularly around that achievable bit.
When I first started as a junior athlete performance profiling was a formalised process with a massive Excel spreadsheet (which I loathed). But as I matured and got to know myself and the process a bit better, it became more informal. I usually knew what needed worked on, where I needed to make improvements in order to progress my performances. A conversation with my coach would confirm or challenge these opinions, with data and charts to back it up, and that then structured daily training sessions.
It’s been an interesting learning experience transferring that process to my writing. There’s not the same tangible data to analyse, so I’ve relied on a combination of feedback from others on my writing and my own judgement. It’s been both liberating and terrifying. I’m not used to flying solo like this, and I’ve had to learn to trust my instincts like never before. I started working with an editor earlier this year, and that’s been useful - as much as anything it’s helped me gauge how far off my instincts have been. Mostly, it’s been pleasantly surprising. Possibly a reflection on how demanding I am of myself more than anything.
Book one is nearly finished (later than expected but with good reason) and I’m due to start writing book two soon, so I think I might revisit some of my goal setting and profiling exercises… maybe keep myself a little more on track than I did with book one!
Did you find this useful? Do you set goals for sport or other areas in your life? Let me know some of your goal setting practices in the comments below!