How to Set Goals You’ll Actually Achieve

Have you tried setting goals only to give up soon after? It’s not because you’re undisciplined or lack willpower. It’s because your goals are poorly designed. A good goal is written in a way that helps you focus and stay motivated (check out the guide on why goals are so valuable). In other words, well-written goals can actually aid in their own execution. Even if you have little experience with writing goals, this guide can help you make your goals more achievable with a few guidelines on how to write a good goal.

🔬 Specific

Just as a map with a clear destination is much easier to follow, a more specific goal is easier to achieve because the specifics can provide valuable insights into how to get started.

Imagine you’re trying to improve in math. A vague goal might look something like “Get better at math.” This might seem fine at first, but where do you start? Do you start with time management? Maybe create a system to make sure you turn in all your homework? Or perhaps start a weekend study group with your classmates?

Compare this with the goal of “Improve math homework score.” This goal is written in a way that gives you insights about how to start. You can create a system to safeguard yourself from turning in late assignments or reorganize your schedule to give yourself more time to do your math homework so you don’t make as many careless mistakes from being rushed.

To make your goal more specific, ask yourself, “How?” This will push your thinking to get more and more specific about the outcomes.

📐 Measurable

The goal of “Improve math homework score” that we had set earlier can be further improved by adding metrics that make it measurable. For example, “Earn at least a 90% on homework for math class.” These metrics allow you to stay on track and course-correct if needed. At any time during the semester, you can look at your current math homework average and know whether or not you are on track to earn a 90%.

In addition to the practical benefits, measurable goals are significantly more motivating because they help you know how close you are to the end. Imagine running in a race where the goal is just to “finish the race,” but you don’t know the total distance. You would have no way of knowing how much you have left to run, so you can’t budget your physical and emotional energy.

To make your goal more measurable, think about the important metrics that will help you know whether or not you’ve successfully achieved your goal and whether or not you are on track.

🏃 Attainable

The goal of “Earn at least a 90% on homework for math class” is only helpful if there’s enough time left in the semester to raise your grade. The goal might not be attainable if you only have two weeks before final exams and currently have a 60% homework average. Attainability is a balancing act between being ambitious and being conservative. An overly ambitious goal becomes demotivating when you realize that it’s impossible, and an overly safe goal also becomes meaningless when you easily attain it in the first few days. You know yourself best, so it is important to be honest and practice.

It’s also important to consider how much control you have over the factors that impact your goal. Some goals are driven by factors entirely out of your hands, while other goals are squarely within your direct control. For example, having the goal of zero arguments with your sibling might not be very attainable because your sibling’s behavior is outside of your control, and you might find yourself in an argument whether you wanted one or not. Instead, maybe the messy bathroom is the source for most of your arguments, so a more attainable goal could be “Clean the bathroom after taking a shower” because you have much more control over your own cleanliness.

To evaluate if your goal is attainable or not, look at the inputs. What is required for you to achieve your goal? If those inputs seem too difficult or outside of your control, then you might need to adjust your goal to make it more attainable. This requires a mixture of brutal honesty and patient practice.

❤️ Relevant

It might seem obvious, but your goal is more likely to be achieved if you have a personal stake in the outcome. However, most people don’t think explicitly about the personal rationale for their goals and instead rely on general, vague notions of the importance of their goals. Without a personal emotional connection, your goal is much more difficult to sustain when things become difficult, which is why most goals are not missed; they are abandoned. For example, you might want to earn an overall A average in your math class because it will look good to colleges, but this rationale is too generic to realistically sustain your motivation when you’re staring down a massive 8-hour study session to prepare for your final exam.

If you’re not sure how to come up with a personal rationale for your goal, try asking yourself, “Why is this important?” a few times until you arrive at something that feels meaningful to you. For example, “I want to get at least an A- in Math class.” Why is that important to you? “So I can get into a good college.” Why is that important to you? “Because a good college will set me up for a good career.” Why is that important to you? “Because I want to be financially stable.” Why is that important to you? “Because I grew up without a lot of financial security, and I want to avoid that when I’m an adult.”

⏳ Time-bound

Without deadlines, goals lose all sense of urgency and priority. It’s all too easy to put off and delay something that needs to be done “someday” compared to something else that needs to be done by tomorrow.

This is easy in cases where there are established deadlines (e.g., school assignments), but what happens when you need to set your own deadlines? In our experience, it’s often easier to triangulate after answering the following three questions. First, when do you need the outcomes of the goal? Second, what are the other things on your plate right now that also demand your time? Last, if this goal was your top priority, when do you think you can finish it? These questions can help you think about the different factors that affect your time and the deadline for your goal.

The Bottom Line

As with all of the methods and techniques we teach, you should always start small, expect to get it wrong at first, and adjust with each iteration. This framework is good, but it only becomes effective when you become familiar with it, so try it out and see how it goes!