School of J

The Importance of Goal Setting Correctly

We’ve all heard from various coaches that setting goals for what you want to achieve in life is important, especially around the new year. After all, how can you achieve anything without first having a crystal clear vision of where it is you want to be? It would be like setting off in the car without programming the sat nav – maybe you’ll end up somewhere nice or maybe you’ll be stuck in traffic on the A406 like I’ve spent many hours cursing traffic. Most of us want the certainty of knowing where we are headed and how to get there.

So we set goals – both personally and professionally. For example last year I set myself the goal of getting promoted within the year, and achieving a six figure salary by a specific time frame. I even had my reward all planned out if I got it – a nice shiny Rolex watch that beckoned to me like a lighthouse in a stormy night. It always helped me stay focused on the goals, knowing that I was working towards a tangible reward.

However the problem of setting goals that are not dependent on you and your actions alone is that you cannot control the outcome. I worked hard all year and made my intentions known to my manager so that we could work together to achieve it. I made sure my goals were aligned with the goals of the institution I was working for. I had accountability in the form of colleagues who were all rooting for me. But I never got the Rolex.

Why? Because my goals were dependent on external outcomes that I had no control over. I had no influence on how many associates the bank promoted that year to VP, or whether my manager would be supportive of promoting me after having just hired a VP onto the team. I also had no control over my spiralling health issues which forced me to take time off work, and eventually leave the company altogether.

It was tennis that provided some insight into where I had been going wrong in my approach. Sports coaches such as Patrick Mouratoglou have made videos on this subject. In tennis it is just as important to set goals for what you want to achieve on court, but they must be entirely dependent on you and you alone. It is no good setting a goal of winning x games/sets/matches because there is an opponent on the other side of the net actively trying to prevent you from achieving that. In other words, there are external factors that you do not control.

Instead, Patrick suggests setting goals such as putting in 100% effort, or playing your strongest shot against your opponent’s weakest shot. You are not guaranteed to achieve this every time, but on balance you can achieve your goals even if you eventually lose the match. The difference here is that you have achieved what you set out to do, so psychologically speaking you have won (even if you lost the match). The more times you do this, the more likely it is you will see the results you desire and develop a winning mindset.

So next time you beat yourself up for not achieving what it is you set out to do, just remember that you may have been setting the wrong goals altogether. Focus on what you can control. Add a specific time frame. And when you do achieve them, remember to celebrate that win regardless of the actual outcome.

Right, I’m off to the Rolex show room.