Explanation

10.1 Why is it important to establish goals?

Think of some of the things you would most like to do in life:

Which are the most important ones for you? Why?
Which would bring you more satisfaction?
Who could support you in your efforts to reach each of them?
What obstacles do you think you could come up against to achieve them?

There are people who like to plan and have lists of everything they do or what they would like to do. They like to set goals.

You could even say that they are guided by the phrase "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."

On the other hand, there is also the kind of people who think that it is better to go where life is leading them, without planning.

Some of them see setting goals with skepticism, or even with cynicism, because they think that in life there is so much uncertainty that it is impossible to know what will happen and therefore it is not worth making plans or setting goals for the future. They think that, as the saying goes, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".

10.2 Characteristics of well-planned goals

Is it worth thinking about the future and setting goals? Although there are situations or events that we cannot control, and we cannot be sure of what is going to happen in the future, there is research that indicates that people who set goals and achieve them have higher levels of well-being.

According to Tarragona (s.f.) having clear goals helps us to:

Focus our attention
Use and develop our skills
Take advantage of our character strengths
Structure our time
Feel competent
Have a sense of control, achievement and success

According to the PERMA model, goals and achievements constitute one of the components of well-being (Seligman, 2011).

Many people think that in order to achieve a goal, it is enough to "get the urge". Enthusiasm and commitment are very important, in fact, but there is much more information that we can take advantage of to learn how to achieve what we set out to do. Two of the most important researchers who have studied the processes to establish and achieve goals are Edwin Locke, of the University of Maryland, USA and Gary Latham, of the University of Toronto, in Canada.

Their research has shown that we are more likely to reach a goal if the following conditions are met:

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Challenge

Even if it does not seem very logical, we are more likely to achieve a difficult goal than an easy one, as long as we have the knowledge or skills necessary to achieve it.

Specificity

It is very important to define clearly and concretely what you want to achieve. The goal should be something that can be measured or observed.

Feedback

In order to be able to evaluate if we are getting closer to achieving our goals, it is essential to receive feedback. We need to know if we are on the right track.

Commitment

The most important goals generally require a great effort and this implies a commitment.

Most people only commit to their goal if they consider it really important and if they think they can achieve it.

It is important to set goals that are not too easy to reach, that are a little beyond our fingertips and that require us to strive to achieve them. According to Locke and Latham (2006) the goals must be specific

Examples:

If someone says "I want to improve in math", that goal is well intentioned, but a bit vague. It would be better to say:

I will have a grade of more than 75 in mathematics every month for the remainder of the school year.

If someone says: "now, I am really going to exercise" they could make their goal more specific, for example:
I will walk 5 km five times a week in the mornings, from December 1.

As mentioned in the previous section, feedback plays a key role in achieving goals. When we play basketball, the ball and the ring serve as a reference because they indicate whether we scored a point, or if the shot was too low or went high. This allows us to adjust the shots so that the ball enters the ring more frequently.

In education, studies like those of Dr. James Pennebaker (cited in Carey, 2013) have found that if students have several short assessments throughout a school period, they perform better than if they only have one evaluation at the end.

It is important to ask ourselves the following question: Is the goal we want to achieve imposed by ourselves or by someone else? The goals we seek to achieve on our own are called intrinsic, while the goals that come from outside are called extrinsic (we are usually more likely to achieve the intrinsic goals).

Another important dimension of goals refers to whether they are …

Approach goals: :
That bring us closer to something we want.
Avoidance goals: :
That lead us to avoid something unpleasant.

If a goal brings us closer to something we consider valuable or attractive, we are excited, and more likely to achieve it; for example, it is more motivating to think "I am going to exercise because I want to feel strong and attractive", than to say "I do not want to be a fat, couch potato”.

Locke (2002) says that there are no shortcuts to achieve our goals, that we need to work and be active to achieve them.

What is one of the main obstacles that makes it difficult for people to achieve their goals?

Locke (2002) in his research has found that the most important obstacle is fear. We are afraid to change, afraid to make mistakes, afraid to fail. This author encourages us to fight for what we want to achieve, without letting ourselves be stopped by fear.

Characteristics of well-established goals

There is a well-known acronym between coaches and business people: SMART.

The word SMART summarizes 5 characteristics of well-established goals:

Specific

There is a phrase that says "Do you know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Sometimes we have so much work or a goal is so big, it seems the size of an elephant. It is important to divide it into small steps or pieces to reach the goal.

Measurable

To know if we are moving forward it is essential to measure what we do (for example, how many times we went to the gym in the week, or what grade we got in the chemistry exam).

Achievable

It is important that a goal be challenging, but without exaggeration.

Realistic

If we set ourselves an unrealistic goal it would be something almost impossible to achieve, we can be frustrated and discouraged. It is better to increase the level of the challenge little by little.

Time

We have to say when we will do what to achieve our goal, for example: "I will finish the thesis in May of this year", or "I will fix my drawers on Sunday afternoon".

Many people find it useful to think of goals as small, measurable, achievable, realistic, and with a completion date. However, other people question whether it is a good idea to set small goals, they think that may be limiting.

Why not set big goals? As the saying goes:

“Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”.

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Tips for achieving your goals

Pay attention to what you are interested in and passionate about, and give yourself time to work towards your intrinsic goals.
Consider something positive that you want to achieve (instead of something negative you want to avoid).
Set achievable goals but stay a little beyond your comfort zone.
Get frequent feedback on your progress.
Define your goal in the most specific way you can.
Write down your goals .

Dr. Martin Seligman (2011) says that twentieth-century psychology's mistake was to think that it "pushes" the past, instead of thinking that it "pulls" the future. Goals are a good example of what pulls us, like a magnet, towards the future and helps us to build and get closer to being what we want to be.