My 3 Ingredients For Powerful Goals (and Avoiding the Analytical Pitfall)

This is part 2 of my "Anatomy of a Goal" series. This post explores the 3 ingredients which I've found to be essential in my own achievement process along with a diagnostic of the issue which plagues most when trying new things (paralysis by analysis).

Goals aren't meant to be a static, binary measure... heck, I even tweaked mine in the last two weeks when writing this article because I realized where they could be stronger. I've never seen a first draft of anything that is ready for prime time, goals are no different and deserve to be re-shaped when new information is introduced. Hopefully, this article will serve as a scalpel to refine, enhance or abandon one's existing goals and to enable the outcome(s) which we are truly excited about this year. I know it had that effect on me. Let's dive in

For those new to me and what I'm up to, here is a link to my website and my background.

I see 3 critical ingredients of a powerful goal.  A goal is most powerful when it:

1. The Compelling "Why"

Why do we wake up in the morning? Why do we run or lift weights? Why do we re-watch the same episodes of The Office time and again? (ok, maybe that's just me...) We make hundreds of decisions a day. Some decisions are conscious with a specific benefit in mind, some are unconscious with our mind solving for the outcome it wants. When taking on a new goal - a compelling why is critical because the resistance you face along the way will repeatedly prompt some form of this question: "Why I am doing this?"

It would be great if this question could be answered once and then permanently retired. In my experience, this is not the case. This recurring question is so piercing that it can effortlessly dismantle a goal if one hasn't taken the time to thoroughly answer it. Knowing the answer to this question in advance of our mind asking it is essential. Its just like your time in school, if you don't know the answer before sitting down to take the test, you won't like the outcome. Here's a personal example that is fresh in my mind:

• I set a goal this year to swim a 1-mile open water race by August (~8 months out). Swimming has been a major weak spot for me as long as I can remember. While I learned how to swim at an early age, I never developed any real confidence in the pool (much less in the ocean). When thinking about growing my swimming ability in connection with this goal, I can feel my brain firing. I am excited about the prospect of conquering something that I've feared for a long time. I am excited about the benefit that water confidence will have on personal interests I want to explore in the future (surfing, spear fishing, triathlons, maybe even an Ironman). I can't ignore the energy and excitement surrounding this goal, these are my "whys" and they are very clear to me.
• Fast forward to my second session of training in the pool (~2 weeks ago). I was doing a 4 x 150 workout (4 sets of 150m swim). My pool is 25m long, so each set had 6 laps (that's 24 laps in total for you math majors). During my 2nd lap of the FIRST SET my body had already failed  and I had 22 laps left to go. My lungs were on fire, my legs were acting as an anchor, and I had no idea what I was doing with my arms. I can't be sure, but I think it probably looked something like this:

• Anyway, I stood up in 3 feet of water, gasping for air, and wouldn't you know it, that snarky question rocketed to the front of my mind... "why in the world am I doing this?!"
• My mind didn't stop there, it proceeded to argue its case, "A mile is ~64 laps in this pool!! .... You couldn't even do 2 laps without stopping!!"
• I'll be honest, this was not a pretty moment for me. Not at all. I was frustrated, several expletives likely fell from my lips, but the the most important thing was, my "Why" was already intact before I stepped into the pool. I swatted these questions away with a comprehensive rebuttal: "I'm committed to improving a lifelong deficit of being weak in the water", "I'm committed to feeling strong in the water so I can embrace all sorts of amazing water activities in the future", "I'm committed to exploring what I'm capable of"
• I was able to finish the set (and ultimately the workout) due to this one very small decision - I was crystal clear on my "why". My "why" wasn't ambiguous, I had even practiced saying it aloud to myself during my planning phase to ensure I could articulate it and that I wasn't conning myself.

Explore your "Why". If you can't put your finger on it, that's a fantastic recognition - perhaps it deserves more reflection. Perhaps its a signal your true passion lies elsewhere. Only you can decide.

2. Outside The Intuitive Fence

The 2nd ingredient to a powerful goal is its location outside of one's intuitive fence. More often than not, we can draw a straight, short line between our current reality and our goals. We just leave so much value on the table when we do this! I'm speaking to myself as much as anyone, I did it for my goals this year without realizing it!

Before a story, a few words on the nomenclature. I'm using the label of "intuitive fence" to describe the current beliefs we hold about our capabilities. A fence comes in all shapes and sizes, some are highly developed (if you regularly challenge yourself), others are underdeveloped (like to play life safe). One's intuitive fence also differs depending on the domain (relationship, fitness, career, etc.) and is heavily shaped by one's past experiences and current fears.

The fence posts represent the perceived boundary of your capabilities. Most people don't relate well to the idea of failure, its reinforced from an early age (school, sports, etc.) that failure is to be avoided whenever possible. So when it comes to setting goals in our adult lives, we are not looking to put ourselves in a position to fail. We don't want to be 'at risk', we stay safely within the perimeter of our fence.

So we assemble a collection of very reasonable and defensible goals. Our targets place a premium on achievability and most tragically, don't require meaningful growth from our current trajectory. Now for a story:

• This year when sitting down to outline my goals, I knew I wanted to set a goal around my content creation vision. I had already thought through my "Why", but I was struggling on how and where to place the target. After ruminating on it for a few days, I landed on the following goal: "write 52 pieces of content by December 2022". Seemed reasonable enough, it implied I needed to write ~1 post per week and there was a psychological safety blanket around the simplicity of knowing exactly what I needed to do.
• Another week went by and it struck me that I planted this goal well within my intuitive fence! The amount of growth that would be required of me to "write 52 posts" was negligible; I was sand-bagging. If you are like me and are committed to exploring what you are capable of in life, then its important to recognize when we are undershooting. Side note, this "safe goal" also was devoid of any energy/enthusiasm for me and was by far the least exciting thing on my whiteboard (my thoughts on the importance of energy are discussed here)
• Once I had this notice, I thought about targets which would require me to really grow, targets which would force me to "skill up". I landed on the following update: "To build an audience of 5,000 subscribers by December 2022" .
• I can say with a straight face, this is a massive stretch for me. For perspective, I'm starting from a current base of ~50 family and friends and have no real writing or promotional experience. I find myself laughing a bit as I write this and stare into the massive gap between where I am and where I'm going... but that's the point. In order to go after this goal, I will be required to consistently learn, intentionally iterate each week, and take action commensurate with the goal. See my own intuitive fence (pre/post goal) and a sweet headshot to boot:

Of course there are no guarantees I find my way to this goal by the end of the year, but I'm committed to taking action with the intent of realizing the desired outcome. Regardless of outcome, I know this goal is energizing and will deliver greater results than my initial goal, no question.

3. Measurable

Measurability is a classic buzzword when talking about goals. Its cliché, but I've recognized tremendous value when applying it to my own process. Recently I was working with a coach who asked me a simple question underlining the importance of measurability. He asked me: "how will you know you have achieved what you set out to do?"

We typically entertain idealism when thinking about goals and our future (have a great marriage, financial freedom, land the dream job, etc). These are wonderful aspirations, but additional scrutiny is useful for trimming ideals into goals.

Let's use financial freedom as an example goal and overlay the clarifying question from above: "how will you know you have achieved financial freedom"? The leg work of answering this question provides powerful specificity and clarity for us and what is required in the months and years ahead. It empowers us to chart out the next week or next month, to chunk down a daunting target into smaller sprints and build forward progress. If one's goal was simply "to achieve financial freedom" or "to have enough passive income to live life comfortably", the lack of measurability obfuscates one's ability to know if they are moving in the right direction, much less if the movement is occurring at the right pace. How can we sustain effort towards anything if we have no encouragement or data that what we are doing is working? Insisting on measurability protects the achiever by serving as a compass to clarify where they are currently going and a framework to change direction when facts and feelings change.

You can see in the two goals I've shared above, both are structured so I can definitively know when I have accomplished them. They both are time bound (August for Swimming, December for Audience) with a knowable outcome (Completion of 1 mile swim race and 5k subscribers). Solely focusing on the binary outcome of a measurable goal (achieved or missed) is not the point. The point is to establish a daily, weekly and monthly clarity which enables consistent and meaningful action. Measurability helps erase the ambiguity we encounter when doing new or hard things.

In addition to the 3 key ingredients above, there is one idea noticeably and intentionally absent from this list:

Knowing How to Get There (The Analytical Pitfall)

Its important to wrap this post by saying, despite all the structure I'm advocating, I strongly believe we do not need to know in advance how to reach the goals we set. When we demand to know the road map in advance, we fall into a timeless trap. We enter the zone of 'analysis paralysis' as we seek to develop an opinion on each unknown and formulate the 'perfect' plan. In my experience this is avoidable and the probability of success ratchets up when we side step this trap.

Certainty is an impossibility, the 'perfect solution' doesn't exist, so an 'optimal solution' is what we all really want. The fastest way to get the 'optimal solution' is to start with the information you have at your disposal, take action based on that information and then consistently iterate to upgrade your approach over time.

• I put this into practice recently for my swimming goal. I identified and committed to my 1-mile goal even before deciding on a training regimen, before reading any books on swimming, even before getting in the pool to establish my baseline. I'm not saying that this is the best approach - but I have seen myself rationalize avoidance for years and the opportunity cost of that avoidance is palpable. But, just because I entered into this goal with a massive ignorance threshold, I made sure not to stay there. Check out the first handful of weekly commitments made so far this year:

• This screenshot highlights my commitments outside the pool (i.e., excluding training sessions). What you'll see above is that I'm taking steps each week to close my knowledge gaps, and let me tell you, I have a boatload of them! You'll see everything from researching potential races, to training techniques and drills. I'm not waiting to have all this stuff figured out before I begin taking action. The benefit of this approach is that by committing myself to action in the pool, those experiences directly inform how I can best allocate my time outside the pool. You can see it in action if you look closely at this screen shot.
• The 5th commitment from the top reads: "Research 1-3 techniques for initial swim training sessions"... For now, let's ignore the fact that this commitment is poorly constructed and lacks specificity. You'll see I ended up abandoning this commitment. I did this because during my training sessions that week - I realized that my arm technique was my biggest constraint. I could never have gathered that insight from sitting in my office trying to think through all the steps between now and race day. Second from the bottom you'll see the benefit of this approach in action: "Research 1-2 drills to improve arm technique". By not waiting for the perfect plan, I could intelligently iterate and progress more rapidly. (I also was able to keep that commitment, in part because it was very specific, actionable and informed by direct feedback.)

My encouragement:

Hopefully these ideas constructively influence your goal(s) for this year. I'm highly confident that: enhancing our "why", expanding the intuitive fence and gaining clarity from measurement will augment the growth we experience this year. Imperfection is a required input for growth, so don't pressure yourself to derive the perfect plan or even the perfect first step before getting started.

To conclude, here is a table I put together featuring a few questions if you want to test your current goals with the ideas discussed above

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Stay Tuned, More to Come - Ryan

P.S. - As a bold request of anyone reading... my vision this year is to reach an audience of 5,000 people. If you know anyone who may like this article or if you have advice on strategies to reaching this goal, I'd love your input!