Goal setting
After we have figured out where we want to move, the most interesting thing begins. We need to plan how we will do this and set goals correctly. As you may have noticed, for me the goal is the result that will lead me to the dream. That is, to the realization of my desires. I am not talking about the purpose of life, I do not consider the word «goal» as something global. A goal is a tool that allows you to capture the characteristics of a future version of my current situation in order to build a reversible plan to achieve it. For me, the desires themselves and the correct system of how to move towards them are more important. Goal setting is the next stage after the target picture, and it is not the last. Therefore, in this section we will not be preaching about how important the goal is, and say that an aimless life is bad. Many books have been written about this, research has been proven and tested in practice. It will only be about how to organize the goal-setting process so that it produces progress, not stress.
Now I am writing a book about my system and methods, but my relationship with goals has gone through all the typical stages from disappointment to admiration. They developed approximately according to this scenario:
1. Carefree childhood. Im sitting on my parents neck, Im studying at school and I dont suspect what awaits me in the wonderful adult world;
2. Then the student years. I just live without thinking about the future. Only worry about being expelled from the university;
3. Graduation time is approaching. I promise my girlfriend a car and wait for the best employers to start fighting to invite me to work;
4. Welcome to adulthood. I understand what exactly Kurt Cobain meant to say.
«No one will die a virgin. Life will fuck everyone»
Kurt CobainThey dont give me an opportunity to work, I live in a dorm with cockroaches and I dont know what to do. I work as a system administrator at a service station, then I connect the Internet to apartments, I begin to hate myself and this life. Not to mention the status of a babbler who promised a car and boasted that everything was under control. As a result, I get a job at the factory, and The Groundhog Day begins;
5. Work, home, work. Goals? What goals? No, I havent heard of them. Everything is done either by acquaintance, or by just getting lucky. I live, work, endure and blame everyone around me that everything is the way it is;
6. It seems that something needs to be done. I try to read books. They write about goals and success. But its easy to write in books, everything is different in life, so I call BS on your goals;
7. I watch the movie «The secret». Wow! You dont have to do anything, just visualize the desires, and everything will work out. How stupid it is, I wont do it;
8. I really want the changes to start by themselves. They say it is necessary to write down the annual goals on paper, burn, dissolve the ashes in a glass of champagne on New Years Eve and drink. Yes, I really did it. It didnt work;
9. They say that it is necessary to write down annual goals on paper. Just do whatever you want, and it will come true. The power of writing by hand will work, and the result is in your pocket. Ive been writing A4 sheets for a couple of years, nothing happens, I just write out of habit and I dont believe in it myself;
10. I learn about the methods of setting goals. They advise setting goals according to SMART. So that everything is clear and detailed. So that even the salary should be specified, with a deadline and at the current price level. The goals have become longer, but still useless;
11. Disappointment. No matter how you write down these goals, nothing comes true, everything is useless. I have enough of deceiving myself and keeping my head in the clouds. I will write down real goals, simpler ones that I can really master in a year. As a result, they come true, but they are so small that they look more like tasks, not goals;
12. Im moving to Moscow, life is getting more complicated. I find a job getting to which takes me about 3 hours. In the subway I start reading books about IT. Its necessary to become a programmer;
13. I learn about Agile and the word «sprint». Lets try to set goals for the quarter, not for the year;
14. Well will you look at that! It works better. People, look at how I set goals Im a genius! No, Semyon, youre not a genius. In the book «Just Space» Katya Lengold has already written everything. If you dont know about this book, then be sure to read and subscribe to Katya. Her book brought Agile approaches into peoples daily lives and shortened their path to the dream. Katya, respect. Keep doing what youre doing!
15. I read all the books about time management that come across. I start to read books about the brain to avoid thinking traps and make quarterly goals clearer. I find out about the zone of the closest development of Lev Vygotsky. It turns out that you dont need to strive to get out of your comfort zone, thats the twist. It turns out that I drank ashes with champagne for nothing;
16. I read and experiment further. I get to the book «Essentialism. The Path to Simplicity» by Greg McKeon. It hits the head of time management with a stick. I understand that the main thing is not productivity, but selectivity. To have time to do more, you need to plan more. There is not enough time to do everything, there should be fewer goals, but they should be important;
17. Im wrestling with the ways to give up the least important among all the important things. I read about Gestalt psychology and learn more about true desires. It is difficult, incomprehensible, but it seems that this is the only way to set priorities in life correctly;
18. At the time I observe goal-setting at work. Managers make mistakes in goal setting. I collect them, reflect, draw conclusions;
19. An interesting observation. When I decompose work on goals in my task tracker, I notice that sometimes I forget about the goal, but the things I do still lead to it. Then why do they write so much about goal-setting? In Ivan Zamesins blog, I read a review of the book «The Theory of Luck» by Scott Adams. There I get acquainted with the principle of «System against goals». This becomes a powerful upgrade of my goal-setting system and finally puts everything in its place. Of course, I also advise you to read the book;
20. I tell my friend Dima Moroz about this. He says, «But there is the OKR method by Google,» and tells how it works;
21. I study OKR. I take all the best out of it and make a simplified version for myself. Ive been living with this for a year, I understand more and more that selectivity and the system are the most ideal pair for goal setting;
22. I am telling in this book about my final version of the goal-setting system at the moment.
This is a brief history of my relationship with goal setting. I think many people will recognize themselves in the beginning. How the system works for me now, I will tell you further. I am sure that the system is not perfect and can work better. But even now, it also works for others when I help them set it up. Notice, I came to this through mistakes. At each new step, I understood how not to do it, and I did it differently. I learned new things from books and from people, cut off what didnt work and left what worked. I smoothly moved from the «poke method» to the algorithm. Therefore, take care of your time and do not repeat my mistakes. Let your starting point be higher than mine, so that your final version of the system will be even cooler.
Mistakes in setting goals
Before moving on to the goal-setting system, lets analyze the main mistakes so that you know the enemy in person. They understood how to deal with it, and why exactly these tools are used. When you understand what mistakes, they help to exclude, you will understand the principles of their work. This will allow you to adapt everything to yourself and improve your own approaches.
«Terminator: I have human anatomy files embedded in me.
Sarah Connor: I can imagine. After all, it makes you a more perfect killer»
«Terminator 2: Judgment Day»Some errors are components or causes of other errors, but I have compiled just such a list so as not to miss anything and understand the cause-and-effect relationships. It turned out to be ten points a beautiful number for a paragraph of a non-fiction book. I described the mistakes that I made myself and that I meet most often with other people. I also briefly described how to avoid such mistakes. Do not rush to let the thought «Thank you, cap, this is understandable, but how to do it?» into your head. Next, I will describe my approaches. Even without special knowledge, they will drive you into the framework of an algorithm that will minimize errors. Lets start our hit parade!
1. No goals.
Ive met a lot of people who cant answer what their goals are. They just answer that they want to live well. Usually there is no goal for those who, like a squirrel in a wheel, solve problems nonstop in order to stay afloat. They just go with the flow. They are driven by incentives, so the goals are simple. But if they had ambitious goals, the approach would be completely different. Also, the desire to set goals decreases with the onset of the basic comfort zone. People in the comfort zone experience anxiety and do not develop. Without a goal, it is difficult to understand what is important, since everything becomes important, and it is impossible to determine the priority. The worst option is when a person is depressed or cannot recognize their desires. Such people live in the image of a victim and are happy to stay in it, blaming everyone around. So, its easier to come up with an excuse for your inaction and wait for everything to be brought on a platter. I was at the place of the victim and the squirrel. You read my story above. If you are reading this book, it is unlikely that you do not have goals. At least you have a desire for them to appear, and thats fine. If you dont have goals, analyze the reason why this is happening. In any case, you have desires and curiosity. If you dont see them, figure out why. Through books, videos, psychotherapists or the poke method. The main thing is to try. Otherwise, life without goals will kill you mentally and physically.
2. Somebody elses goals.
In the beginning, I already touched on this topic a little. Usually, they tell me that there are no other peoples goals. If a person wants something, then how can it be someone elses wish? There is some truth in this. But I would say that there are no other peoples desires, but there are other peoples goals. Today, many people want to work in the IT field. Is it a desire or a goal to get such a profession? Ask such a person why he needs it. Hell say something like, «well, its cool, modern, they pay a lot, cool offices and they have cookies there.» Such a person sets himself the goal of «becoming a programmer». But for some reason, actions are postponed, excuses are invented, and the code is not written. Most likely, this is someone elses goal, with which a person wants to satisfy his desire for security or status. He wants to have a sought-after and prestigious profession, so that the conditions are better, and he is not ashamed to tell his friends about it. Because YouTube and social networks show such content about programmers that gives the right to think so. They program electric cars there, launch startups and speak at conferences. Everyone has become very successful. Wherever you look, theres CEO, CPO and a lot of other abbreviations. Any person watches it and wants to satisfy his desire, but with the help of someone elses goal. It wont work that way. You need to want what you want and understand why you want it. I had such a situation with learning English. At the beginning of my work at red_mad_robot, I saw a man in the office who spoke on the phone in English, as if it was his native language. Then the thought flashed: «I want it that way too.» Why dont I, so cool, working in such a company, speak English? Then I met a few more people who call to London and chatter in English no prob. So, in my goals for the year there was a goal to learn English. No matter how I formulated it and decomposed it, no matter what methods I tried, nothing worked. A year has passed, and all the progress that I had was only a dozen new words and thats it. I made new attempts, but all to no avail. At some point I thought that I was not given, and gave up. At that time, I thought I understood goal-setting. So, I decided: if it doesnt work now, then theres no point in trying. It was just someone elses goal, and I made such a disastrous conclusion about my abilities. My brain didnt want to lose my status so that I would be worse than others. I was ashamed, and it hurt my ego. Although I have always been a person who has never tried to prove anything to anyone. But so unconsciously there was a goal that I didnt need. I realized that the goal was someone elses when I asked myself the question: «Why do I need English?». I wasnt going to move, its not really needed at work, I had enough knowledge for traveling. The answer was because everyone at work knows it, and am I worse than them? Of course, nothing works like that. The brain wants everyone to love and respect us, but it doesnt want to do anything. I started enjoying learning English when I needed to do what I like. I translated the lyrics of my favorite bands and read in English at work about UX design, digital product development, management, psychology and education. When I received the information, I needed without waiting for the translation of articles and books, I did not notice any difficulties with the language. Even though I looked every second word up. I slowly formed a habit. It has become the norm for me that I cant understand everything, but I read in English. Then I was shown the TV series «The Office» in the original with subtitles. Watching all the seasons in the original immediately became a priority goal. Fans of the series will understand. Again, the question «Why?» saved everyone. When the answer to this question appeared, there were no problems with motivation. I was just having fun because I liked doing it. Understand your desires so as not to live by someone elses goals. The most annoying thing is to be disappointed when you have reached the goal, and you dont need it. I presented my thesis in university, I know what Im talking about.