<ol><li>Be Your Own Therapist And Shrink Yourself. Ask yourself why do you really want this goal and what feeling do you hope to get from achieving it.</li><li>The Big Picture, Middle Picture, And Small Picture. Know the ultimate goal, the middle steps, and the micro steps needed each day.</li><li>Plan Like A Quitter. Plan the method through which you will stay accountable and in touch with your goals throughout the year, knowing there will be inevitable challenges.</li></ol>

3 Keys to effective goal-setting

Self Improvement

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I am currently moving into a new apartment and while going through all my old stuff I came across a list of my new year's resolutions from 2006! And since you're here, I'm going to share my adorable list of 2006 goals with you, and they were as follows:
1) Read more books. 
2) Live healthier. 
3) Spend more quality time with friends and family 
4) Be more successful. 
Awww! I was so reasonable and well-intended for a 22 year old. 
Now fast forward to 5 years ago, to 2013. 
My company was a budding creative agency of 4, competing with the big guys, writing free proposals left and right, living and dying by how many clients I could actually close and always desperately looking ahead for the next, larger client with deeper pockets. This being the normal small agency grind I felt encouraged, but all the while <a href="https://worstofalldesign.com/blog/2017/1/30/debt-success-and-branding-a-small-business">I was spiraling into debt </a> - the debt that would eventually force me to rethink my entire business. In the months that followed, we hit rock bottom financially and were forced to clean house and completely reevaluate our business model and goals. 
And guess what my goals were that year? 
1) Read more books 
2) Live healthier 
3) Spend more quality time with friends and family 
4) Be more successful. 
I'm not saying these goals or my goal-setting process was the reason I was in debt and struggling to keep my head above water in my business, but something wasn't right here. 
In the past 5 years, however, my life has changed dramatically, and measurably. 
The reassessment of my business and all of our processes led to us building the company we have today: lean, intense, and highly profitable. We owe that shift in large part to an approach to goals we started then that eventually became the backbone of our goal-setting process and that we still use today to get what we want . 
I realized that each year I would just keep going about life the way I'd always been. I always read books, but was I reading more? I've always lived a relatively healthy life, so that continued with only intermittent lapses. And it's not like I didn't see my friends and family a lot... 
 <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fpiasilva%2F2018%2F12%2F19%2F3-absolute-musts-to-be-successful-at-goal-setting%2F&amp;text=What%20I%E2%80%99ve%20learned%20in%20developing%20a%20more%20effective%20goal%20setting%20process%20is%20that%20I%20used%20to%20skip%20over%20a%20a%20few%20key%20factors.">What I've learned over the years in developing a more effective goal-setting process is that there are just a few key factors which I used to skip over.</a> Not only that, but missing even one of the factors will likely result in not achieving said goals. 
And while many goal-setting or new years resolution methods touch on some or all of these factors, I've personally found that successful goal-setting requires completing the trifecta and that missing any one of them significantly lowers your chances of achieving what you want. 
My 3 keys to effective goal-setting are: 
#1 - Be Your Own Therapist And Shrink Yourself This means asking yourself do you want this goal and what feeling do you hope to get from achieving it. Go as deep as you can. Why do you want that goal? 
For example, a common goal is "making more money this year." So if this applies to you, ask yourself: do you want more money? What will having more money or the things you can buy with it actually get you? Is it to feel more secure? To be able to afford spending more time relaxing or with your family? Maybe it's to be recognized as a successful person? 
 <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fpiasilva%2F2018%2F12%2F19%2F3-absolute-musts-to-be-successful-at-goal-setting%2F&amp;text=%E2%80%9CMore%20money%E2%80%9D%20is%20a%20vague%20and%20undefined%20goal%20and%20is%20unattainable%20since%20there%20is%20no%20defined%20finish%20line.">"More money" is a vague and undefined goal, like "reading more" or "being healthier", and is unattainable since there is no defined finish line</a> , but you can use these as inroads to discovering your real goals. Connecting to why you want what you want will help you get there. For me, when I really drilled down into why I wanted a bigger agency with bigger clients it was actually because I wanted more freedom and flexibility over my life. Once I realized THAT it changed everything, because then it became clear to us that we could actually get more freedom and flexibility faster if we DIDN'T have a big agency at all. That was the impetus to us downsizing to just two people, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/piasilva/2017/01/09/how-branding-the-small-business-way-got-my-company-out-of-debt">changing our business model </a> and achieving that freedom and flexibility in just 6 months! Instead of what could have taken YEARS if we had kept going down the traditional agency path we were going down. 
#2 - The Big Picture, Middle Picture, And Small Picture. If you come up with big huge amazing goals but then don't have clear bite-sized steps to get to them, you will be left dreaming. If you have manageable bite-sized goals but no bigger picture, you may either lose motivation and never achieve it or achieve it and then not know what to do next. Knowing the ultimate goal, the middle steps, and the micro steps needed each day completes the picture. 
#3 - Plan Like A Quitter Being an entrepreneur, I don't think I know anyone who is comfortable thinking of themselves as a quitter, but doing so will improve your goal-setting process and increase your chances of achieving whatever you write down. Because unless you have a specific, written out plan to follow through on your goals that takes into account the inevitable interruptions, distractions, and dips in enthusiasm then you are likely going to be part of the 92% of goal setters who fail. 
Planning the method through which you will stay accountable and in touch with your goals throughout the year knowing there will be challenges and lapses in motivation is critical to its success. That gusto we all have when we sit down to create goals is going to dwindle at some point and if there's no net to catch you it's easy to genuinely forget what you were going after. 
Doing just one of or two of these things makes you far less likely to achieve your goals. Half-assing how you set and pursue what you want does not get you to your dream goals. It only sabotages your own success. Your goals should work for you, not against you, and our three-step approach can ensure that happens as long as you're putting in the work. 
If you want to find out more about doing OUR goal-setting process, check out <a href="http://www.badassyourgoals.com">www.badassyourgoals.com </a>. 
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What I've learned in 10 years of developing a more effective goals process is that there are just a few key factors to successful goal-setting. Unfortunately, they also happen to be the ones we skip over most often and missing just one of them significantly lowers your chance of achieving any goal.

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3 Keys to effective goal-setting

Success Magazine: Secrets for Effective Goal Setting | Tony Robbins

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Bite‑sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

3 Absolute Musts To Be Successful At Goal-Setting

3 Keys to effective goal-setting

Success Magazine: Secrets for Effective Goal Setting | Tony Robbins

Goal Setting: 5 Science Backed Steps to Setting and Achieving Your Goals

Goal Setting: A Scientific Guide to Setting and Achieving Goals

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career