41–50 of 64 posts
Here's the question I struggle with: How do you set "goals" when you don't know what you want? I have been stymied by this time and time again. If you don't know what you want to accomplish, how do you set any "goals"?
SMART Goal: Spend 30 mins on Sunday researching what new thing I will try that week. During that 30 minutes, identify the smallest reason why I find that thing interesting. Repeat for 8 weeks.
I'm currently in this stage. :D
Here's the question I struggle with: How do you set "goals" when you don't know what you want? I have been stymied by this time and time again. If you don't know what you want to accomplish, how do you set any "goals"?
I cannot, presently, understand the systems at work to the extent I want to (astrodynamics, satellites and such; calc, linear, and physics are 15 years in my past). So I'm deliberately setting aside time to study and practice those topics to enable my understanding of astrodynamics and what we do at work. I don't intend to master it (that is, to the extent of the literal rocket scientists in the office), and I don't know that I'll need or use it after this current position. But I do want/need to know it now so I've established goals around it.
I want to make furniture, and have the ability to do decent work. I took some courses and enjoyed it, and demonstrated to myself I wasn't incompetent at it. But I have no equipment in my home to do it. So I'm setting aside money to buy some basic equipment, and planning to set aside time to spend on it once I do.
What, in your life, is currently blocked from you or are you not at your desired level? Create near-term goals to remove the blockers or achieve your desired capability/level. If you start to make a habit out of thinking this way and developing routines and systems to enable these goals, it may become easier to make long term ones. Or you may never really make long term goals, we don't all need them.
Stop setting goals.
There's nothing wrong with setting goals. But you usually have to create a system to go along with the goals in order to achieve them. Having goals, though, can direct the systems you want to create for yourself. Goals (for me) over the past few years: 1. Be able to play 140 minutes of soccer in one go without wanting to die (or feeling like I would). 2. Be able to stop taking a statin. 3. Get my blood pressure down…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's nothing wrong with setting goals. But you usually have to create a system to go along with the goals in order to achieve them. Having goals, though, can direct the systems you want to create for yourself. Goals (for me) over the past few years: 1. Be able to play 140 minutes of soccer in one go without wanting to die (or feeling like I would). 2. Be able to stop taking a statin. 3. Get my blood pressure down…
Most of what you're describing is habits and systems, not goals--and that's what I'm saying, too. James Clear's article here espouses what I'm talking about: https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems
Goals can also be "repeated" goals. Like my fitness example, I didn't want to make it through 140 minutes of soccer on just one Saturday (this is a problem with "I want to run a marathon" goals, it's a singular achievement). I wanted to do that every Saturday throughout the season so the system enabled perpetuating that ability throughout the years.
Christ I hate the word 'overwhelm'. It's SO jarring. It's like when people say "I'm feeling melancholy". NO! You're feeling melanchol ic ! You did something "on purpose" and not "purposely"! And the world is not full of overwhelm. It's full of emotional overload[1] perhaps. [1] https://www.dailywritingtips.com/overwhelm-is-a-verb-isnt-it... ).
Note that a person who is likely to feel that way is also likely to be less well-equipped to predict your specific preferences for how to express that.
My comment is widely off-topic either way though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of what you're describing is habits and systems, not goals--and that's what I'm saying, too. James Clear's article here espouses what I'm talking about: https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems
Well, I am setting goals, but I'm specifically creating systems to enable achieving and sustaining those goals. That's my point. Systems aren't better than goals, and goals aren't contradictory to systems. They feed on each other. Goals are motivation to create systems, systems are mechanisms to achieve goals. Goals can also be "repeated" goals. Like my fitness example, I didn't want to make it through 140 minutes of…
This is probably not a goal but a system and systems are much preferable to goals. This has been discussed elsewhere and I personally prefer to have systems than goals.
I have still not reached a stage where I can define systems without a goal as a starting point. Even then I let the system make the goal fade into the background and eventually make it invisible/irrelevant.
The key difference is systems eliminate the end stage of a goal and the resulting emptiness after completing a goal.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"If you only value that which has a number, you'll lose sight of what truly matters in life because of the Streetlight Effect[1]" I don't think that's the intent. The intent is to look back and see if you accomplished your goal or not. If you don't have a measurement, then you don't know if you've meet your goal. Something such as 'I want to be a good parent to my kid' Isn't specific, nor is it attainable. Setting a…
> 'I'm going to loose weight this year' Okay, how are you going to do that? About this goal specifically, I found it beneficial to stop thinking about a target weight. Instead think about: What level of fitness do I want? What kind of health do I want? (the two are related, but not the same) Main reason: If you take up exercise and are not obese or at the higher end of "overweight", you may not lose weight for the fi…
I've spent large chunks of my life as an extremely fit ultra-endurance athlete. I've done events that other ultra-endurance athletes called "insane". I wasn't at the front of the pack, but I was at the front of the middle of the pack.
These days, I'm not interested in racing. I'm not even interested in training. But if I do think about "fitness" or "health" goals, it's definitely structured around what I'd like to be able to do, rather than specifics of my body.
For example, one standing goal I've had for a long time is to remain fit enough be able to go out and run a half-marathon more or less on a whim, and still finish in 1:45 or less without hurting too much.
More recently, having moved to 6000' as a home elevation, as well as being very sedentary from work/life stuff, I'd like to be able to keep up runs uphill without stopping, regardless of the pace I'm moving at (currently impossible).
I think structuring things around "what I want to be able to do, and how I want to feel after I do them" is an excellent framework, and far better than "lose N pounds" or "cut X minutes off my time for Y".
Here's the question I struggle with: How do you set "goals" when you don't know what you want? I have been stymied by this time and time again. If you don't know what you want to accomplish, how do you set any "goals"?
The OP lost me at "SMART" which is the very first word in his article. SMART goals are not smart. They stem from "management by objectives" and are not a good way for individual personal goal setting.
Personal goals develop as you work on them.
I recommend Mark Forster's SOPP book on more of this: https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/1820695/secrets-of-product...
(not affiliated)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 'I'm going to loose weight this year' Okay, how are you going to do that? About this goal specifically, I found it beneficial to stop thinking about a target weight. Instead think about: What level of fitness do I want? What kind of health do I want? (the two are related, but not the same) Main reason: If you take up exercise and are not obese or at the higher end of "overweight", you may not lose weight for the fi…
Coming at this from opposite direction as you, I nevertheless wholeheartedly agree. I've spent large chunks of my life as an extremely fit ultra-endurance athlete. I've done events that other ultra-endurance athletes called "insane". I wasn't at the front of the pack, but I was at the front of the middle of the pack. These days, I'm not interested in racing. I'm not even interested in training. But if I do think abou…