Online Goal Setting Practices

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹-𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴? As I thought about the goals I actually reached over the past year (I didn't hit them all), I realised most of them weren’t about hitting a specific outcome. They were grounded in regular, consistent practice — a system! Traditional goal-setting tells us that a goal needs to have an endpoint. It 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 be measurable, specific, and time-bound. But honestly? That approach can often lead to targets that feel arbitrary or disconnected from what really matters. For example, I could have said, "I want X new clients by June". But that number would’ve been plucked out of thin air and lacked meaning for me. Instead, I focused on showing up consistently, refining what I was doing, and building relationships. Here’s why I’m taking a system-focused approach to 2025 — and why it might work for you too: 1️⃣ Focus on inputs, not outputs. Instead of stressing about the result, concentrate on the actions that will get you there. For example, instead of "I want to read 20 books in 2025", try "I’ll read for 15 minutes before bed every night". Small, consistent inputs lead to big results. 2️⃣ Celebrate progress over perfection. Outcome-based goals are all-or-nothing — you either achieve them or you don’t. But with systems, you can celebrate the small wins along the way. Progress feels good, and it keeps you going. 3️⃣ Keep moving forward. What happens after you hit your goal? Often, progress stalls. But with a system, there’s no finish line. You just keep improving, one step at a time and you can adapt to new opportunities or challenges with ease. Here’s an example: 💡 Outcome-focused goal: "I want to be promoted to a Manager role by July 2025". 💡 System-focused goal: "I’ll complete one Learna topic on leadership, feedback, or coaching every Friday and put it into action during team WIPs.” The second approach builds a habit, not just a result. As James Clear said in Atomic Habits: "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems". So, instead of setting rigid goals for 2025, think about the systems you can create to help you grow. It’s not about being perfect — it’s about showing up, staying consistent, and making progress. What systems are you thinking about for the year ahead? #GoalSetting #SystemsOverGoals #CareerDevelopment #NewYearGoals

Should you keep it simple and stick to one method of goal-setting...or is there benefit in adopting a hybrid approach? The answer can be determined by building your knowledge of goal setting methodologies and assessing your organizational size, maturity, complexity and change management capability. Many start ups and small businesses use simplified goal setting methods due to their size and limited resources. They might set SMART goals based on revenue, quality, customer acquisition, or product development, focusing on clear and attainable objectives. However, this approach doesn't always work when businesses get bigger! Larger, complex and diverse organizations generally use multiple goal setting methods to allow for a more nuanced and holistic approach to goal management. Some companies might set SMART goals for specific product development projects, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for strategic initiatives, and Balanced Scorecards for measuring overall performance, giving them a versatile approach. Others might use might use SMART goals for individual performance evaluations, Hoshin Kanri for strategic planning ( info on this approach in comments) and KPIs for tracking various operational metrics across different business units. Choosing the best methodologies for your organization requires involving employees, managers and other stakeholders in the decision-making process. You could also consider running a pilot program or trial period with different methodologies to assess their effectiveness in your specific organizational context. Remember...effective goal setting provides a clear roadmap for success, aligns efforts, motivates individuals and teams, and enables efficient monitoring and adaptation. The right methodology can drive performance and achievement. #goalsetting #goals #strategicplanning #strategicthinking #goalsettingtips Image source: SugarOKR.com

Yesterday I took the entire revenue team (sales, cs, marketing) off the floor for out for a very specific training. Goal Setting. Yep. The entire org for over 60 min together learning how to set and achieve goals. I do this 2x a year with my teams. Why? Because most people never accomplish their goals because they never actually set them and never actually create a plan to achieve them. I've gotten pretty dang good at setting goals. I've gotten pretty dang good at achieving goals. It makes life so much more fun. So here are the key concepts I teach in goal settting. 1. Set a goal in each of the 5 buckets. Self. Health. Wealth. Proffessional. Experience. 2. Identify the Keystone Goal - Which goal if achieved will have the biggest impact on all the rest. 3. Who do you need to BE in order to achieve this goal - How would this person act, work, communicate, behave, etc 4. What do you need to BELIEVE to achieve this goal - this combined with number 3 is where we create our affirmations. 5. Why do you want this goal - aka what will change in your world when you achieve it - If nothing changes... nothing changes. 6. What are you done dealing with now/whats the negative of NOT achieving your goal - Having a negative is important when things get hard. 7. Why you Why Now - Why are you capable of achieving this goal, what traits, resources, etc do you have that allow you to believe you can do this. 8. What are your 3x3s - 3 things daily, weekly, and monthly that if done will give you your best shot at achieving - Example - Put workout clothes out the night before with the alarm across the room - that would be a good daily for health 9. Make it visual - Vision boards (we will be doing this in a couple weeks as a team) - but also visualize it each morning, each evening, not just the accomplishing of the goal, but the process to achieve it. 10. Accountability - Share it with people that not only want to see you win, but also with people that won't allow you to lose/will hold you to the fire. --- All written out by each individual and then my challenge to them is to read it every morning and every night for 60 days. Watch what happens when you do. A team that sets goals together, wins together. I can't wait to see so many of theirs goals, so many of their affirmations, and so many of their achievements. This is going to be good ya'll. Just wait and see. PS - this is one of the most popular modules in the Sales Leadership Accelerator in fact it's unlocked right out the gate for all members. PPS - I'll be doing this workshop at Pavilion GTM in a few weeks as well here in Austin. Lets set and smash some goals ya'll!

How to outperform in 2024 across all areas of your life. 8 simple exercises including questions: 1. Reflect on the Past Year: Consider your achievements, challenges, and areas where you'd like to improve. Ask yourself: - What went well this past year? Why? - What could have gone better? Why? 2. Set SMART Goals: Make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Ask yourself: - Do I want to do more exercise or do I want to work out 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes a day every week until the end of the year? 3. Create Categories: Divide your goals into different categories like career, health, personal growth, relationships, finance, hobbies, etc. This helps maintain a balanced focus across various aspects of your life. - Which areas can do with more time investment? Why? - Which areas can do with less time investment? Why? 4. Prioritise: Decide which goals are the most important to you and prioritise them accordingly. - Which 2 goals from my long list of 20 goals will bring me the most happiness and sense of achievement if achieved in the next 3-6 months? - Why am I not prioritising these? - What will I do tomorrow to work toward them? 5. Break Down Goals: Break bigger goals into smaller, manageable tasks or milestones. This makes them less daunting and helps in tracking progress. - What advice would I give to someone in my shoes on approaching these goals? 6. Write Them Down: Put your goals in writing. You might create a vision board, a list, or use a digital platform to keep them organised and visible. - How can I remind myself of my goals every day? 7. Review and Adjust: Regularly review your goals and track your progress. Adjust them if needed to adapt to changes or new insights. - How will I define progress? What does progress look like? - What steps will I take if things aren't going as planned? 8. Stay Committed: Keep your goals in mind and take consistent actions toward achieving them. Celebrate your successes along the way and don't be discouraged by setbacks. - How should I celebrate each success, milestone or achievement? - How can I make this fun and enjoyable? Remember, the most important part is taking the first step. Failures will happen. But failing forward (accepting and learning from your failure) is the best way to increase the likelihood of success. Good luck! #Career #Students #Goals

If you’re setting goals the way most people do, you’re already behind: Here are 7 Steps to Set Goals That Actually Drive Results: 1️⃣ Start With Your "Why," Not Your "What" ↳ Goals without purpose lack staying power.   ✅ Write down how achieving this goal aligns with your core values. 2️⃣ Apply the 70% Rule ↳ The ideal goal should feel 70% achievable, 30% challenging.   ✅ If confidence exceeds 90%, aim higher. Below 60%? Break it down further. 3️⃣ Create Systems, Not Just Targets ↳ Goals tell you where to go—systems get you there.   ✅ Define the daily/weekly actions that make success inevitable. 4️⃣ Build in Measurement Triggers ↳ What gets measured gets improved.   ✅ Establish clear checkpoints with specific metrics every 2 weeks. 5️⃣ Anticipate Obstacles in Advance ↳ Preparation eliminates excuses.   ✅ List 3 potential roadblocks and pre-determine your response to each. 6️⃣ Connect Goals to Identity ↳ The strongest motivator isn't achievement—it's becoming who you want to be.   ✅ Frame goals as identity statements: "I am someone who..." rather than "I want to..." 7️⃣ Share Selectively for Accountability ↳ Public accountability works—but only with the right people.   ✅ Choose 1-2 people who will hold you to a higher standard, not just offer comfort. 📌 PS... The quality of your goals determines the quality of your results. Most people aim for what's comfortable—exceptional leaders aim for what's meaningful. ♻️ Share this framework with a colleague who's ready to set goals that actually translate to impact! 🚀 Join 72,000+ leaders reading my daily science-backed tips on leading high-performing teams using mindset, habits and systems. No vague goal-setting advice. Just proven frameworks that create real-world results. ➡️ Follow me for more Harry Karydes

It's Goal Planning season and I'm always looking for ways to offload work, so... five ways that you can use #GenAI in your 2025 Goal Setting: 🥦 Create journaling prompts - assign your favorite GenAI buddy the personality of business or life coach and then tell it that you're planning out your 2025 priorities. Ask it to ask you questions about yourself and your values to help you clarify what is really important to you. 🥦 Have it guide you through best practice goal setting/mapping exercises - shockingly enough, goal setting/mapping has been around since... forever. You just made a business or life coach, why not put it to work? This one is a two-stepper - ask it to list out the top 10, science-backed goal setting tools and tips and (after its given you the list) ask it to walk you through setting your 2025 goals, step-by-step. 🥦 Have it extract and organize your brain dump - I mighta spent two hours yesterday clearing the mental decks of everything my brain SAYS I want to do in 2025. It was 10 pages. Handwritten. I popped that puppy into #Claude (#ChatGPT wanted nothing to do with it) and had it extract the handwritten list and group them according to category. Now I can turn that into a document that can go into a Project, either on Claude or CGPT. 🥦 Have it help you prioritize your 10-page list of hopes, dreams, goals, and delusions - as you might know, I have the #ADHD. So, in my head, all of those tasks are a "of course I can do that, why wouldn't I be able to" and outside of my head it's a "OMG, too much, burn the list!" I told Claude about my struggles and it was such a helpful partner in recommending ways to organize and prioritize the list. Even suggesting groupings based on "Quick Wins" and "Dopamine Rich Activities". 🥦 Use #GenAI to create your images for your vision board - if you haven't read 'The Source', you might not be aware that there's a reason vision boards work - it's because of how our brains process visual cues in our environment. (I just realized I'm using a lot of dashes, and I swear this is hand-made content, picked straight from the vine). After spending an hour on Pinterest trying to find The Perfect images for my #Canva vision board project, I'm still missing some vital few. And so, I head over to #Midjourney, to help me finish up the project (and possibly waste four hours trying to make The Perfect image, but that's a Me Problem, not a You Problem). #GenAI can't do the thinking and it can't run your life. But it can certainly help YOU do the thinking and help YOU do the things to make your 2025 The Best Year Ever (as they say on the YouTubes). Happy Chatting!

As we approach the New Year, it's time to rethink our resolution strategy. Although we set intentions yearly, the challenge remains: how do we stick to it? I want to share with you the strategy of agile goal-setting, an approach widely adopted in the startup world, including within my own ventures. This methodology, battle-tested in the unpredictable world of startups, can be equally successful in navigating the complexities and uncertainties of our own personal development. Try a different approach to make your 2024 resolutions a tangible reality! 🎯 Step 1: Find Your North Star - Define an overarching goal that aligns with your core values. Be it strengthening family bonds, advancing your career, or prioritizing health, let this North Star guide all your actions. 🗺 Step 2: Create a Roadmap - Break down your North Star into monthly milestones. These achievable goals will keep you on track and motivated. Celebrate each milestone, reassess, and pivot if needed. 🔄 Step 3: Iterate and Adapt - Life is unpredictable. Review your progress monthly and adapt your goals. Miss a target? No worries. Opt for 'low-hanging fruit' goals that are impactful yet achievable. For a detailed guide including examples on how to craft your New Year's Resolutions using startup strategies, read my blog and share it with your friends who may need a new approach to goal-setting. https://lnkd.in/et5AAhu2

One of my favorite techniques I use with my coaching clients is the "set the bar low, clear it, then do it again" goal-setting approach that comes from Stanford's Designing Your Life framework. The idea--backed by reams of science on goal-setting, behavior change, and motivation--is that when you're working toward a major goal, breaking it down into much smaller, extremely achievable goals dramatically increases your ability to actually achieve a big goal. Setting almost ridiculously low-bar smaller goals that you are almost guaranteed to meet lets you immediately start seeing progress, which both creates and helps sustain momentum. For example, if you're not currently reading on a regular basis but want to read 50 books this year, the big-picture goal of "Read 50 books within the next year" could be broken down into an initial low-bar goal of "Read 1 sentence each day for a week." That bar is so low it's almost impossible to miss. After a week of reading a sentence a day, set another low bar goal, like "Read a paragraph a day for a week." Once you're consistently clearing a low bar, set another very low bar goal. And keep repeating. Setting yourself up with a bar so low you essentially CAN'T fail to clear it and then gradually and regularly setting a new low-bar goal in line with where you've progressed to makes even the biggest, most challenging goals infinitely more achievable. What life-changing goal will you make WILDLY achievable by setting the bar low, clearing it, then doing it again? [ID: A gradient orange and purple background with white text that reads: What life-changing goal will you make WILDLY achievable by setting the bar low, clearing it, then doing it again? -- As always, thoughts and views are my own and do not represent those of my current employer. #GoalSetting #Motivation #BehaviorChange #Coaching #WorkSmarterNotHarder