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July 31, 2008

How to make your goals more measurable

In response to my previous post about Horizons of Focus, Erik Molin had the following question:

"For focus areas like finance and fitness, I can see measurable 30k objectives (weight lost, school loans paid off) but I struggle with other areas like Relationships, Creativity, or even Spirituality. I can understand the 40k Vision of what these look like, but as far as measurable goals to make up the vision, I struggle. I seem to have a gap at the 30k/objectives level.

How would you coach someone through this situation?"

I thought it would be useful to share my response here as I see this issue come up a lot in my work with clients.
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Hi Erik,

Thanks for the question. First of all I want to make it clear that you don't necessarily need to have 30K goals for each and every 20K item. If being responsible to those areas of responsibility is enough to actually achieve your vision, great.

Also, while it is helpful for the 30K goals to be specific and measurable - it's not necessarily mandatory. For instance if, in my creativity area of focus, my goal in two years is to be "more consistently engaging in creative activities," great! Or in relationships, you might just want to "develop a strong and trusted support network." Those are both just fine as long as the goal itself is motivating and clear to you.

If you really want to get some of the nonspecific & measurable goals to be more specific, here are a few tips:

Put your words in their mouth
Let's say that you have a sense that in your relationships area you have a goal of being more selfless and generous but it's difficult to quantify that. One way to play that one is to make the goal about someone else who knows you well, like your partner, telling you that you have been consistently more selfless and generous. That way it's specific and measurable. It may seem like an artificial construction - but you'd be surprised how often this will actually happen IF you are truly committed to that goal. And even if your partner doesn't actually say the words, articulating the goal will still do wonders for pointing you in the right direction.

Making the immeasurable measurable
If you dig a little bit more into your intentions at the 30K level, even if your goal feels a little subjective, you can often make up an objective measure that represents that goal having been accomplished. For instance, a while back I was feeling like I was imploding a bit in the area of friendships. I was so busy in another area of my life that I'd neglected some of my key friendships and lost a few to moves and other situations. A goal I created to embody my new intention was "I have made at least two close new friends whom I will know for years."

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I'm curious what other creative and useful ideas others have used in this situation. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Posted by mdolan at 07:00 PM | Comments (1)