Goal setting benefits are supposed to include making money, being in great shape, climbing the ladder of success, owning amazing cars, and just being the person everyone wants to be.

How many times have you heard that? Especially at this time of year. It’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to a dozen other websites and self-help gurus, this is when you should be working on your goals list for next year.

So I started doing what I’m “supposed to do” and started going over goals. I found past notebooks where I’ve written goals, and my goals seem to be the same every year. What about you?

Have you had the same goal or two for the last couple of years? Have made that same New Year’s Resolution multiple times? Me too!

I wish I could tell you all the things goal setting benefits. Try to sell you on setting goals. And then sell you the greatest goal-setting course, book, or thing that will make you achieve your goals.

To tell you the truth, I’m still working out the benefits of goal setting and trying different systems to make those goals actually come true. Nothing is perfect. And nothing works everywhere… but here is what I’m working on.

I finished the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr (Amazon Referral link) at the beginning of the year and learned about OKRs (Objective, Key Results). OKRs is the famous goal-setting system used by Google and others to make billion-dollar businesses. It sounded great! And I thought, “when I have my own division or business, I’m definitely using it!”

My boss mentioned the concept last week at work and we both agreed to dig the book up and review it. So I did. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I binged listened to the entire book again, and sat down to write some OKRs for myself and work.

I have most of my goals and am chunking them down into next year’s and quarterly goals. Here’s how I’m doing it:

I created top-line Objectives. Which are my BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). From there, I broke down what it would be specifically to achieve that goal with two or three measurable points.

Zig Ziglar says if you can’t identify and see the target, you will never hit it. So with the top line Objective and the finer points of what it means to reach that point, you can see what you are going for and if you have hit your goal or not.

One of your goals might be like mine, Financially Independent. That’s pretty vague and could mean a lot of things. For me, my two things for that goal are 1. Investments make enough money to fund my lifestyle so I can quit working if I want. 2. Owning everything outright. No debt on any of my investments that are funding my lifestyle from number 1.

Since you are breathing (I assume), I’m pretty sure one of your goals has to do with finances. Money is only important when you don’t have any. And when you don’t have any it is right up there with air for your survival.

Now I’m breaking down the goal into Key Results. My lifetime key result becomes those two points from above. Now I have to break that down into what I can do next year, next quarter, and next month and make those key results by making them measurable.

My 2022 Key Results for being Financially Independent are to create and live on a budget, to pay off my credit card debt, and find three specific retirement funds that have been lost in time since moving jobs.

Now, according to the book, I would break that down into quarterly or even monthly small goals. Then, finally, check in weekly to make sure I’m on track or adjust the goal from there.

Not really anything groundbreaking except the thought that missing your goal by a little is okay. If you are hitting all your quarterly or annual goals you aren’t stretching and growing or creating hard enough goals. In fact, Google is okay with about 70% of the goal being reached in most cases.

Have you ever given yourself permission to only get part of the way there? Me neither. Everything in my life seems to be a binary yes or no. But if you are older than 10 you know there is a lot of gray in the world. And getting mostly to your goal, as long as you are improving your position and yourself is still a great accomplishment.

Getting better is what this website is about. If we could all just get a little better than yesterday or even last year, then the world would become a great place to live. And it starts with you making yourself better.

Get after it,

Ben Branam

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