Goal Setting 101
Introduction to Goal Setting: How it Works
Selling products, services and making a living online is one of the most liberating feelings ever!
But where do you start?
After being asked countless times by our users on Payloadz,
I thought I'd map a really nice long form article that will help you go from broke to living the high life (whatever the high life might look like for you)
Now, I know you're on your own journey and choosing your own path,
But the fundamentals never change!
These fundamental like goal setting habit formation, Identity shifting, Task and priority management come before anything else technical.
And the first and most effective fundamental, to living a great life,
and perhaps the most overlooked
Is Goal setting!
Goals are the foundation of any life worth living. Let's see why.
This article will walk you through the process of setting goals the right way, and will help you put your life on a trajectory of massive success.
That is not to say it will be easy!
But I am saying that for the first time, you can know and see that your success will be guaranteed with this approach.
Goal setting might seem like old news,
Every self help guru has preached about them at some point.
And you’ve probably set a few goals for yourself as well at some point too.
But have you ever asked yourself, if that list of goals you have sitting in a drawer somewhere on a notepad could actually become your reality?
Not just some pipe dream, that all the hocus pocus, woo woo guru’s talk about,
I’m going to go show you how to set goals, and actually achieve them, in a pragmatic, no nonsense way…
Keeping things simple, easy and achievable.
So that even the biggest and most audacious goals will unravel before your eyes effortlessly!
First up… Goal setting and choosing the life you want.
You see, goal setting and achievement is a fundamental human inclination.
In the book Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. Human beings have been coined goal seeking machines.
Our minds have the innate capacity to observe what it is we intend to have and want, and then set out on the path to achieving it. We’re like heat seeking missiles… for what we want in our lives.
To illustrate this, a Yale Study was done and MBA students were tested up against each…. The results are shockingly disproportionate and show how a small activity can lead to massively different results.
Here’s the extract below,
So, Why Do 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined ?
The answer is a simple question: “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” In 1979, interviewers asked new graduates from the Harvard’s MBA Program and found that :
84% had no specific goals at all
13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them
In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. You can guess the results:
The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.
Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.
In the micro term, it may seem pointless to have goals (especially when you don’t see the results you want)
But in the macro and from a longer term view… You having goals will put you on a drastically different path to your peers!
Goal setting in simple terms is a way for you to level up as a person. It’s not necessarily about you achieving a goal… It’s about the person you become.
It’s about the new habits you form, the new way you’ll live.
The nuanced differences you’ll feel when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and are grateful for your physique and proud of yourself for the work you’ve done to achieve this.
Visualise yourself, the type of person you'd be... the clothes you'd wear, how you'd work... embodying and becoming this person.
This is what goal setting and achievement is about. It's about the person you become. the person who is abundant, who is nonchalant and aloof. Who's cool and mysterious (or whatever this person may look like to you.. the key is to make it awesome, badass even)
Everyone sets goals in one way or another, and the people who achieve them, go on to set more goals and go after those, and then achieve them as well. And the virtuous cycle of success repeats itself… and you harvest more and more success.
In the short term it may be arduous, but in the long term… the benefits will pay dividends over and over.
But, the caveat to that is…. the opposite is true as well
People who set goals, and don’t achieve them, build up this guilt, this latent energy that needs to be released… and if these goals aren't’ achieved, people tend to create this never ending cycle of doom…
Where they set goals, and don’t achieve them, and set goals and don’t achieve them
Creating a lot of self hate, doubt and disbelief.
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry… you’re not alone!
Goal Setting: Making your wildest dreams a reality - You can do the impossible!
If you’re in the place where you don’t really have any goals, and are kinda looking for a new direction to head into...
Or if you’ve set several goals in the past, and haven’t really achieved them and have this lingering feeling of dissatisfaction.
Here’s where you need to start,
GETTING OUT OF THE CYCLE OF DOOM
Firstly… if you have goals and haven’t achieved them,
You feel frustrated, angry and disappointed at yourself and have this deep loathing at yourself for not being where you want to be,
I get it… it happens to the best of us.
What I can tell you is that, you can fix this,
Firstly… just forget about the past, your failures and any shortcomings.
How you do that, is feel the disappointment brewing within you (Yes literally let those emotions come up and feel them intensely!)
Feel all these negative emotions you have....
It might be a little painful, all these pent up emotions have a tendency to linger. But nonetheless, you must face these emotions.
Now, let these emotions come up, but just observe them as a third party. LIke you’re watching a fight unfold, just let it happen
(you might want to do this in a place where you’re alone, it can get emotional)
Now, once these emotions have come up, and you’ve felt them
Ask yourself; Can I relinquish these feelings? Can I stop holding on to them?
Because all they are doing is holding me back.
If I keep feeling these emotions and living from this energy, I’ll keep creating the same reality.
Ask yourself what are the pay-offs for holding on to these emotions and feelings and beliefs of negativity?
And when you’re ready, you’ll feel this instant feeling of being light, of release. It’s a subtle feeling. Don’t worry if you can’t feel it exactly.
Just know, you’ve forgiven yourself… and are moving on to a new life
For more on Letting Go and releasing emotions, I highly suggest you pick up the book (Link to the book) - Letting Go - Dr David Hawkins (affiliate link)
You can use this technique for all facets of your life… not just goal setting. It’s just a tool that works very well, because dealing with our emotions is something very few people know how to do, nor is taught in mainstream education.
But without this tool… life can get very hard.
Now, that you’ve let go of these old feelings…
DREAMING BIG
I want you to go somewhere different, somewhere where you can think freely and be at ease.
Maybe a park, a cafe or a cosy little nook in your house somewhere.
This is all to get you into the Alpha Brainwave state
In order to get you thinking more creatively, more in tune with yourself and allow yourself to come up with new ideas.
The alpha brainwave state is synonymous with genius ideas. People like Einstein, Tesla and Edison all used to consciously relax themselves, to slow their thoughts down and go into a reverie/meditative state where they can think more creatively.
That’s what you need to do. Go to a quiet place, where you can relax… take a few deep breaths and calm your mind down to a place where there is no thought.
No unnecessary movements of the mind
Where you feel at ease and present in the moment
Now take out a journal or notepad
And write down your heart's desires… your souls needs
Write everything down
Don’t hold anything back or suppress any emotions you have.
There is no good and bad, and you must allow yourself to feel what it is that you really want.
If you want a Ferrari, or a Gorgeous partner, or Billions of dollars write it all down
There is no need to feel guilty about these wishes.
You could even say that these desires and wishes are your purpose in life, what you sent here to do and have and experience, while in the process finding new solutions and making the world a better place. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho delves into this topic, another great book for you to give a read.
Your desires are good, and not taboo or bad. Allow yourself to feel what it is that you want.
Write it all out
If you feel the desire for it… then write it out
The crazier the better… Being ludicrous is good.
Let your heart out and write out this dream list.
Just list it all out - give yourself at least 10 minutes and go to town.
Now…. you’ve got this huge list… take a quick breather… take a walk and let these ideas of your new life serrande and marinate in your mind. Like a good steak!
After a few minutes, come back to your spot
And now, we’re going to do some more writing (this can take up a surprising amount of energy, but thinning in these creative states will do you more good than you could have ever imagined)
I want you to outline what your best life looks like. 1 year, 5 years, 10 years. Write everything down in a list. Cover aspects such as your;
- Personal
- Relationships
- Finance
- Health
- Home
- Cars
- Business
- Fitness
- Health
Imagine images of this… let these images come up in your mind. Receive these ideas in the form of visions of yourself
Write it out in as much detail as you can. The better you can see something in your mind.. The easier it will be for you to bring it into reality. To make it part of your three dimensional reality.
Now read over everything you wrote down. Make any changes you need to.
While imagining all of this is a reality right now. Feel this now.
Forget about being realistic and following any rules.
If you had a magic wand… and could make anything a reality,... what would it feel like?
Drop any doubts, hesitations, limitations and any inkling of doubt and lack of self belief, feel the pure intention of achieving all of these things, of living this sort of life.
Hold this feeling, for as long as you can
If you want to know more about Quantum jumping, parallel realities, consciousness and reality transurfing… check out these books
Reality Transurfing - Vadim Zeland
Parallel Universes of Self - Fred Dodson
If not, don’t worry… if you follow these instructions to the T - you’ll be amazed at what will ensure.
Now remember this feeling of achieving what you want.
Being SMART about your goals!You’ve gotta be SMART about these goals
It's Shad here - back with the next email all about goals!
If you've been enjoying these emails so far, reply back to this email and let me. Also send any suggestions you have over as well!
There’s a fine line between success and screwing yourself over
And it’s all got to do with being SMART
And being smart, means having SMART goals
You’ve got your dream list, and you have an idea of what you want your life to look like
(If you don’t, go back to the last email and follow the steps.)
That’s amazing… and you’ve done Super job at getting to this place
Most people don't even get to this point… hence the results of the Yale Study.
What you need now, are quantifiable metrics, a more tangible idea of what these goals are.
Which is where being SMART comes into play (yes… I’ve been making a pretty ludicrous attempt at puns) but anyways.. SMART
Here’s what it means;
Here's a FREE Smart Goals PDF you can use to download and make this process a little smoother.
And here's a Notion template you can use for setting up your smart goals!
Now what I want you to do next is to break down each goal.. And make sure they cover and have all aspects of the SMART formula in them. i.e;
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
Yeah, yeah I know… if you’ve been around the self help sphere for a while… you’ve heard of this before… and you’re probably thinking… this is a waste of time … bluh bluh bluh
Maybe…
But here’s what I do know,
Having goals that you can track, that are digestible and that you believe you can achieve is the secret to actually achieving your goals, and becoming the type of person who has achieved them
Can you do this?
This is the first step to living up to these goals you have.
It’s making it easy for yourself to actually achieve these goals.
So, pick 10 main goals you have for yourself.
From different facets, from personal, finance, relationships, knowledge etc
And make them SMART
Use the sheet - makes it much easier to do.
Once you’ve got this… you’ll be well on your way to actualizing them
In the next email… I’ll show you how to make these dreams and goals a reality - effortlessly… with a few simple concepts and paradigms you’ll need.
Making Things Effortless, The Compound Effect and Consistency Trumping All Else.
The name of the game is consistency
The compound effect is a natural law of the universe…. And the small things you do every day over a long period of time will compound, and the small snowball you had, will soon be a massive boulder and then a huge avalanche of success.
Another book you should consider getting is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen
Both of which preach the same principle of consistency and taking consistent action over a long period of time.
The trick is to start small, and make things manageable.
Yes… think big… but don’t be the person who goes out and does an 18 hour work day and then takes the rest of the month off, or who trains for 4 hours a day and then doesn’t go back to the gym for the next 3 months.
The trick is to make the actions you do habitual, to become the person who can live up to these goals and dreams and to take consistent action toward what you intend to achieve
Which is why creating small manageable tasks for you to do everyday will be the key to actually achieving your goals, avoiding overwhelm and turning a pipe dream into a reality.
Because if other people can do it… so can you.
Now for each smart goal you have laid out.
I want you to start working backwards, from the end goal to where you are today. And ask yourself what actions you need to take to get to the goal.
So. Let's take a good old weight loss example.
Let's say you want to lose an easy 10 pounds by January 1.
That is 5 months away. 2 pounds per month.
Need a 6,000 calorie deficit per month, or 200 calories per day in either less calories consumed, or burned with exercise.
So for each goal you have, work backwards towards daily, weekly and monthly tasks you can tick off.
If you’re starting a blog, and want to get to a point where you can earn over $10 000 a month from it.
This can look like;
Writing 3 blog posts a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Creating digital products to sell. A new product every 2 months (sell them with payloads)
Reaching out to 20 other blogs to write guest posts on their sites.
Emailing 30 brands a week to land a sponsorship deal etc
These tasks will be specific to you;
What I implore you to do, is to start small… make them easy to do
So that you can be consistent with these tasks.
Write each daily, weekly and monthly task out you intend to achieve for each SMART goal you have. Start with no more than 10 goals.
You can also use this NOTION template to record these, and tick them off each day, week and month
The name of the game is consistency. Overwhelm comes from doing too much and at one time. That is no formula for success at all.
The key is to let the small tasks compound over time.
Once you have these daily, weekly and monthly tasks you intend to stick to,
Schedule them out in your calendar
And now all you need to do is do the task.
Simple.
But not always easy.
In tomorrow’s email… I’ll show you some sly ways to actually make doing these tasks easy.
But you have to get to this step, and have all the other areas in order.
It's The Final Countdown... the tricks, tips and insider techniques only a few elite successful people use - that will separate you from the masses.
You’re well underway to achieving your goals and becoming the type of person who is worthy of these goals you’ve set.
And remember, if you don’t set these goals and consciously create the reality you want… you’re just along for the ride, drifting along and going with whatever life might happen to throw at you.
The key to any success in any field, is consciously choosing what you want to do, and who you want to become. Because everyone has some sort of ambition… but only a few achieve their goals. That’s because most people just dream.. But don’t have anything written down or commitments to the results they want.
Make the conscious choice for what you want in your life!
And if you’re scared, about making the wrong choice, or picking the wrong goals. Remember, the wrong goal is better than no goal.. And if it is the wrong goal… you can always transition on to the path and to the goal you do want to achieve.
With that in mind, and with you doing all the things I said in the previous emails on Goals.
Here’s a few tips, tricks and tools to make things easier, smoother and more effortless.
Here’s the tools to make things easier
Commitment
Anyone can set goals, and a fair amount of people actually do.
So the question is… Why do so few people actually live lives they are happy and proud of? Why do so few people actually achieve their goals?
One main reason is because of commitment. Or a lack thereof.
It’s easy to set goals, and it’s easy to tell yourself, this time will be different.
Buit without some sort of commitment, you will fail!
That is unless you have so much self efficacy that you don’t need that commitment.
Self Efficacy - Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one's own motivation, behaviour, and social environment.
But if you don’t have the confidence and self efficacy yet…. You’re going to need to build yourself up, by;
Starting with small daily tasks you can do and stick to
By using commitment… and finding some interesting and unique ways to kinda force yourself to do what you said you would.
Here’s a few ways to include some more commitment in your life.
Get an accountability partner - this is someone that you tell exactly what you’re going to be doing over a period of time, and they check in with you regularly and at the end of the period to see how your progress has been. If you fail, they hold you accountable. This is especially powerful if you really don’t want to disappoint the other person and value them highly.
Bonus points - for giving yourself something you have to do, if you fail to achieve this. Like donating $50 to a charity you don't like.
This could look like checking in with someone who you send your weekly plan to, with all the things you plan to achieve in that week. And they do the same thing with you… and then at the end of the week, you both get on a call with each other and check in with each other. If you fail to achieve at least 80% of the things you said you would do… then you pay a penalty (whatever you and your accountability partner decide on doing… could even be posting an embarrassing photo online)
Now, if you’re like.. Super Shad.. I’m too cool for all that… I want something crazy… something bold and damn right ludicrous.
Another way to really hold yourself accountable, is to use social media. You could for example make a post on Sunday, showing all the things you wanted to achieve… then on the next Sunday, show what you did achieve. Then there is no excuse for not following through. A sneaky way to really force yourself to make yourself do the work.
Live from your new perspective everyday - become the new you
Review your goals everyday in the morning and make it part of your morning routine
A lot of the reasons.. Why do most people just fail.. Flat out is because they lose awareness and track of what they want and where they’re going.
So they’re a few easy ways to make this work. The best of which is to make it a habit and part of your daily routine to go back and check in with yourself and see what you want to achieve.
The reason people become drifters in life…the types of people who have no passion and are just along for the ride… just kinda floating and drifting around in space… just existing…
Is because they lose track of what’s really important in their lives.. And let outside influences and all the chaos of the world affect them and commandeer their focus.
So what you have to do, to stay focused on your goals, and who you want to become, is to find ways to remember where you’re going.
To feel what your goals are, to feel what it’s like if you had already achieved it…
And like I said in the first email, without any doubt, fears or hesitations… to feel your goals as if you’re already achieved them… to feel the pure intention of your goals.
There a few ways you can do this too
Create a vision board that represents your goals. YOu can do this digitally, or with an actual poster board. What you want to do is find images of things that represent your goals. This can be a car, the type of home you want to live in, the clothes you see yourself wearing, the physique you intend to have etc. MAKE IT YOUR OWN. Relate it back to your big dream list.
Write and/or read out your goals everyday- this method has been popularised in several books. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill made this technique popular. He coined the term your chief purpose. Other books on wealth creation, mindset and goal achievement have also mentioned this technique. The basic premise is for you to remain conscious of your goals and remember where it is you intend to go with your life. So every morning, you could write your goals out on a piece of paper or type them out. Or alternatively read through your goal list, and make sure you bring emotion into this, and feel how happy and grateful you would be if you had achieved this goal
Using Affirmations - This runs along the same premise as writing out your goals.. But don’t ever undermine the power of these. Dan Pena, the Trillion Dollar man swears by this. Here’s how you do it;
Write your goal out, in the present tense, using either an I am statement.. Or a Why am I? Statement
So for example… Let's say your goal is to have a business that generates over $10 000 a month online, while you work from home, and have time to pursue all your hobbies like surfing and playing golf.
An affirmation for this is… I am living the life, my business is generating over $10 000 a month with ease and I spend my free time playing golf and surfing.
Or alternatively the Why am I statement can be - Why I am living the life of dreams. Why is business generating over $10 000 a month and Why am I spending so much time playing golf and surfing. Why am I having so much fun?
The Why am I? statement, short wires your brain to already thinking and feeling that you have achieved your goals. It's a neat little trick to prevent any self doubt from creeping in.
And if you do get self doubt, Let it go - check out the book Letting Go - By Dr David Hawkins.. And this will explain how. A lot of the reasons that people fail to reach their goals is because of emotions. People aren’t really taught how to deal with emotions and how to use them. Instead most people just repress them.
And if you’re serious about achieving your goals, then read this book!
Here’s a few affirmation examples… feel free to use them
Some... More Tangible tips (Get Notion and Todoist affiliate links)
Using tech and software to help you achieve your goals is one of the most cost effective ways to actualize your goals really fast.
The trick is to set up a system that you use everyday that allows you to keep track of what you’ve done in the past, what you need to do now and tasks you have to do in the future.
You know that there’ve been countless occasions where you came up with an awesome idea, or you found a solution to a problem you have in the shower and told yourself to remember the idea and then implement it.
Then you forgot, because you had a meeting right after with someone else, and had to take the garbage or had to do the laundry. And the idea that you generated is lost in the infinite void.
It’s a terrible feeling… and when you see someone else implement the same idea you had… you’ll feel even worse.
Worse than that, is setting a goal.
Let’s say for example, you want to learn to speak Arabic fluently.
So that’s your goal, you fill up the SMART Worksheet and set everything up.
You decide to spend 30 mins every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to learn Arabic,
You get yourself a list of the most common 10 000 words spoken and all the verbs you need and how to conjugate them.
You decide to study this for 30 minutes, 3 times a week for the next month
And you also speak to a friend who understands Arabic once a week to make sure you pronounce words and speak correctly.
That’s awesome!
So now, how on earth are you going to keep track of that all?
With the busy schedule you have, and with all the other things you have going on… what can you do to make this easy for yourself?
Simple solution is to use something like Todoist, recurring tasks on google calendar and notion. Where you can track your progress, your calendar and see how far you have come.
(link to videos or articles that show this)
The most important - is to build the habits that will allow you to continue riding the wave of success. Even after you’ve achieved your goals… so that you can keep rising to newer and better levels.
The GTD system by David Allen and incorporating the good ol Eisenhower matrix philosophy - created by President Eisenhower. Which is written about in another good book by Stephen Covey and using Notion to track these tasks will make your productivity and goal seeking go through the roof!
So you’ve got a few more books to check out now;
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Setting up a system like this, that’s digital and that you can carry around with you everywhere you go on your laptop or phone will allow you to record new ideas, projects and tasks… while keeping track of both micro and macro goals.
Because regardless of whether you’ve set goals, and made a vision board and told yourself you’d do something and achieve something. It all comes down to living up to these goals and doing the things that will get you there.
Having a system to keep track of this will genuinely make goal achievement effortless.
You just have to stick to it, and make it a habit
So get going… use these templates we’ve created just for you on Notion and Todoist.
And in your Big goal list, your vision board, SMART goals, the daily, weekly and monthly habits and tasks you've committed to doing and make it a habit to check in on your Notion everyday to see how your progress is!
And when you’ve got this setup done in Notion… don’t forget to schedule it out in your calendar. Google Calendar works perfectly for this. You can even set up automatic recurring tasks for those weekly and daily tasks you chose to do!
That’s it for this article.. make sure you subscribe to the blog so you don't miss any new pieces of content like this... that get to the real meat of the fundamentals you need for success!
I hope you’ll take the time to do what I’ve spoken about and followed through.
When you piece it all together… It really is like magic!
I really hope you've enjoyed and got a lot value from these emails!
Carpe Diem