Setting The Right Goals Is The Secret To Success

Last Updated on May 4, 2024 by Nadim Alamuddin

Since this is the new year, and most people set their goals for the year during this period, I thought this post would be timely. The question is how do we know we’re setting the right goals? And what is the secret to success?

How Do We Know We’re Setting The Right Goals?

I recently watched a TED talk, shown below, that presented a new dimension to what I already knew and written about in the post: How To Set SMART Goals And Achieve Them.

In the video above, John Doerr correctly describes that organizations and individuals should be setting the right goals for the right reasons. He also explains how we need to set Objectives and Key Results, something he coins as OKRs. When you dive into this, he explains that objectives are the WHAT and Key Results are the HOW. This is absolutely true when it comes down to certain goals.

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When I set my goals, especially long-term goals, I chunk them down into smaller objectives or tasks. But, even as I do, these are often WHAT I want to accomplish. The other dimension we usually forget to set is HOW we’re going to achieve these goals.

There are some goals that are easily attained by their pure nature. But, other goals, such as organizational or more complex personal goals, may need a strategy in place for you to be able to know how you’re going to achieve them.

Knowing The WHY Is Critical In Setting Your Objectives and Key Results

John goes further to explain that, in order to set the right goals, we need to understand the WHY, the purpose of setting these goals. This is what will ultimately motivate us to work towards these goals. I have written a post on this topic: “Have You Figured Out What Your WHY Is Yet?“

To recap, setting Objectives & Key Results will help you set the right goals and that is the secret to success.

According to a study done by the Harvard Business School, the 3% of the students in class who had set their goals (objectives) and concrete plans (key results) ended up earning up to ten times as much as the remaining 97% of the class.

Your Comments Please…

How have you been setting your goals? What method(s) do you use and which have or have not worked for you? Please leave me your comments below this post…

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