The Right Tool for Achieving your Dreams

Recently I did a presentation to the Runtime Revolution team about Goal planning. I talked about ‘SMART’, ‘DUMB’, Tony Robbins RPM and David Allen’s GTD.

In a nutshell:

It is common sense the importance of having goals and work towards achieving them, but what is the best way to organise ourselves in that regard?

You are not trying to fulfill someone else’s goals. This is your goal!

The first step is defining the objective — the ‘what’ — In this endeavour we should try to be simple, pragmatic and measurable. What you want to achieve needs to be trackable, you should always know how far or how close you are from reaching the goal. Think, for example, that you are climbing the Everest; in this life or death situation daylight is very important, because at night the temperature drops and there is no light for orientation. So it is crucial to know how far you are from the summit and how much daylight is left.

The second step is defining the motivations that drive you to pursue your goal — the ‘why’. In this stage you should carefully write down what you think you will feel when reaching the goal. Remember that you are writing these notes for yourself — so be honest. You are not trying to fulfill someone else's goals. This is your goal! If done right this is a powerful self motivation tool.

The last step is the plan — the ‘how’. For this step, you should start by laying down your intended path on a higher level, i.e., defining the little steps to be climbed. These steps should be actionable. The challenge lies in trying to squeeze them into your daily routine.

From time to time you should review all of this — track your progress and adjust course.

At the end of the presentation we did some Q&A. One of the questions raised was ‘What tool do you use?’.

Before diving into that, let me say something first:

Daydreaming is great and it is one of the guiding principles for goal setting and planning

When people daydream about something it is common to have a well defined image of that moment in their minds and the feelings unveiled when achieving the goal. That is all part of the game, in fact, that moment should be captured in your goal planning system, because it is very important for motivational purposes.

For example, when setting the goal of finishing a marathon it is common to imagine that moment with a sense of personal achievement. That last stride crossing the 26.2 mile mark is pictured like the famous scene of Rocky Balboa running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That dream is so vivid that even the colours, brand and model of the running shoes are engraved in your mind, and of course that super special smartwatch should also be ticking in your left wrist. Daydreaming is great and it is one of the principles for goal setting and planning.

The problem starts when the accessories start to be placed in the critical path of the achievement. What I mean by this is until the running wannabe doesn’t buy that specific set of colourful running shoes or until that specific model of smartwatch is not available in amazon™ they will start procrastinating, instead of following the four month workout plan usually required in preparation for a marathon. Not having the accessories becomes an excuse for not chasing the main goal.

What will eventually happen is, finally they buy the running shoes and the smartwatch but never engage in the running workout, which in turn will leave them unable to finish the marathon and the dream will fade away. — I have seen this happening many a time.

Accessories should not be placed in the critical path.

The approach must be the other way around. The workout plan should be the main focus. That is what will prevail when the runner ‘hits the wall’ at approximately three quarters of the race when all the energy is depleted and one has to find the strength to carry on until the finish line. The running shoes or the smartwatch might add some motivational bonus but they will not do the run for you.

Getting back to goal planning:

Tools are like the accessories I mentioned before. You should start by creating a system. Your system! The main goal is for the system to work, and for you to believe that it works. You don’t need Evernote, Todoist or Omnifocus to have a working system. Of course tools will help, and will help a lot, but they should not be considered as “the system”. More important than the tools are the behaviour changes that occur inside your head. The way of capturing and processing all the information that is thrown at you every day.

Your system itself is the right tool

So if you are thinking about starting your own system, or have already started but are still in the process, please carry on. You will feel a lot better day by day when you start seeing with your own eyes that it really works. Step after step you will gradually improve and you will feel that a weight is lifted off your shoulders. You will feel that you are on control and it does not matter how many things you have to do, because you will always focus in the most important ones. You will see that your system , — itself is the right tool.

If you have any comments or questions I’d love to hear them. Also if you liked this post and took something out of it press the little heart at the end.

Currently I work and learn as much as I can at Runtime Revolution. I really like to learn new things and make the most out of everything.