David J Schwartz, author of The Magic of Thinking Big sets us a challenge in his quote: “Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big achievements.”
A great idea, but for many of us setting big goals is much easier said than done!
I think part of the problem with cajoling ourselves to make big goals, is our lack of belief in our ability to create a big, planned outcome. These big ideas and plans are alien to us because they are so far removed from the world we live in right now, consequently it’s a huge mental leap to see ourselves living a completely (albeit desired) different life. Additionally, for a lot of people, if they don’t know all the steps that are required to get to their ultimate outcome, then they’d rather not start.
So how can we overcome this inertia and actually make big goals, but fool ourselves into thinking that they aren’t as outlandish as they appear? The trick, as we all know is to take baby steps, but again, this can be problematic if we’re not prepared to look far enough ahead and actually acknowledge that there is a big goal out there, somewhere in the future. The technique I like to use is to think in stages, starting from “now” and then building on this. Here’s a simple table of how building the goal iteratively might look, along with an indication of the possible timeframe:
| Small Goal (short term) | Bigger Goal (medium term) | Biggest Goal (long term) |
| Within the next year | Within the next 2 – 5 years | Within the next 3 – 10 years |
If we think of our goals in these three easy categories – small, bigger and biggest, with each of these time markers being something like ‘within the next year’; within the next 2 – 5 years’ and ‘within the next 3 – 10 years’ respectively, this gives us a comfortable place to start. But there’s one more thing to consider before jumping in and attempting to define some big (long term) goals. Many people, when they set goals, make them too vague. For example here are the top five ‘goals’ taken from the 43 Things website :
- Lose weight
- Write a book
- Stop procrastinating
- Fall in love
- Be happy
So let’s see if we can populate the boxes with some goals and the possible ways they can be grown to bigger and biggest goals.
| ‘Vague Goal’ |
Big |
Bigger |
Biggest |
| Lose weight |
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| Write a book |
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| Stop procrastinating |
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| Fall in love |
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(Treat others how I would like to be treated.) |
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| Be happy |
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| Timeframe |
Within the next year |
Within the next 2 – 5 years |
Within the next 3 – 10 years |
Now, let’s just re-write those goals as if they were your long term goals, or your biggest goals:
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It’s easy to see that there is a significant gap between the original ‘vague goal’ and the final ‘biggest goal’. In fact, if you put them side by side they might appear unrelated. However, the trick is to build the stepping stones in between, ie, the big, bigger and finally biggest steps.
After completing this exercise, it’s then just a question of designing a series of actions that will bring you closer to your first milestone (within 1 year) and following through on these actions. From there, move on to the next stage (2 – 5 years), repeating the process and tweaking and adjusting as necessary to remain moving in the right direction. Finally, move on to the third stage, and the period between 3 and 10 years…your ‘biggest’ goals; plan your actions and take action. By the time you reach this stage it’s likely that you will have already made even bigger plans and the life you dreamed of a few years ago will be appearing all around you!
So if you’re having trouble identifying your big goals, give this iterative technique a try. Start with a rough sketch of the plan and just fill in the gaps. Allow your mind to play with as many drafts of your goals as you like until you finally start to feel excited about the potential of your long-term, biggest goals!
Please let me know how you get on in the comments section. I’d love to hear what you think of this technique!
Photo: Tate Johnson
Nicola, Thank you so much for not only helping me see that I really am on the right path to achieving my biggest goal, but that I’ve already achieved more than I’d realized!! Your post is so pertinent to me right now that it’s almost as if you were inside my head! I think that, once we start the momentum going on some of our goals, the rest start falling into place more easily. It’s almost like they’re building blocks on each other.
Thanks for your comment Sheri. I’m so pleased that you’ve enjoyed the post, and that I’ve connected with you! That’s a real bonus for me! I agree that once we start progressing, lots of other things begin to fall into place. Quite often though, we don’t see this until we look back and see how far we’ve come. Well done on the progress you’ve made so far…it sounds like you have much more lined up too!
Good luck with your future goals 🙂
I had goals/plans not all of them have been met/achieved over the years…guess now no children to be mothering its time to make new goals both short and long term, though I tend to make shorter term goals, and in 1 month, 2 months etc
Hi Katrina, sometimes we don’t meet our goals, and there can be lots of valid reasons for that, but at least by having your goals you stand some chance of getting there! Short term goals are valid and necessary in order to make progress, so lack of a formal long term plan probably just means that you need to stretch a little on the short term goals. Maybe you could try one or two of your short term goals with the technique in the blog?
I wish you luck in all that you progress…thanks for posting 🙂
I have never made a formal life plan. Now that I am approaching retirement I need to do this. I’ve seen several people fail at retirement because they did not investigate and plan properly. I also posted this on my LinkedIn page.
Hi Alana, I’d agree that it’s a good idea to make a plan ahead of retirement. I’ve seen lots of people in my workplace who appear to be reluctant to retire and I often wonder if that’s due to uncertainty about what to do with their time during retirement. Clearly having some kind of plan would help with this transition.
I wish you well in your retirement, it’s such a wonderful phase of our lives!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
It’s always refreshing to have the things you know you are trying to achieve explained more formally (and structured into bite size and seemingly more accomplishable smaller tasks). We have a longer term family plan and business/life objectives – but this article encourages me to get more clarity and focus on what we have loosely set out to do in various areas. There are always issues and obstacles on the way, and so it’s important not to let them cause you to stand still or shake you off track. I aim to use the above to get more specific on our goals, i.e. break some of them down into more manageable milestones. Thanks for posting.
Hi Matt, I’m pleased you’ve found value in this article. I must admit that writing it helped to clarify my thoughts too as it’s all too easy to keep our goals quite loose, or worse still, just in our heads! It’s good that you already have longer term plans, a lot of people don’t, so to gain even more focus will definitely put you ahead of the ‘pack’. Good luck and thanks for posting 🙂
Hey,
Both my husband & I made a 5year plan which is going really well (only a year into it). Recently we’ve had to tackle a few ‘issues’ and now they have been dealt with we’re able to come to terms with previous barriers to acheieving some of our goals. You could say huge weight off our shoulders and life has never felt so good. Here’s to the next year and to acheiving our ‘mini’ goals & these being to get fitter for our daughter so that we’re able to continue to be active with her when she wants to play ball/ trampoline 🙂 & for me to continue excelling in my professional career fingers crossed a more permanent role will become avaliable & I’ll be able to fufil another goal 😀
Hi Tanya 🙂 That’s great that you’ve taken the time and have committed to long term goals…even better that you and your husband are working together! I like that you’ve set your ‘mini’ goals between each of the larger milestones, thus making a positive outcome far more likely! It’s clear that you also feel you’re in control of your destiny when you say “life has never felt so good”! Wow, great stuff!!