4 Simple Goal-Setting Principles to Build the Life You Desire in 2023
Simplify your goal-setting process in 2023 with this easy framework
Welcome and thank you for checking out Optimise Me, a bi-monthly newsletter sharing research-backed, practical tips to help you optimise your self-growth and personal productivity.
It’s 2023.
You already know what that means.
It’s time to set some goals.
Before you get bogged down with super complex and long strategies, I suggest you read this article.
It doesn’t have to be that difficult.
In fact, if there’s one thing I learned in 2022?
Goal-setting is simple, straightforward, and pretty easy.
One of the simple, straightforward and pretty easy goals that I have? I want to make Optimise Me more actionable, more relatable, and more readable. I’m back with a new format, and hopefully some more action-oriented ways to help you not just read, but do.
Here are four simple goal-setting principles to take with you into 2023.
If you’ve been an Optimiser for a while, or you have any feedback - hit reply and let me know your thoughts on the newsletter!
1. Review and reflect
It’s tempting to jump straight into creating a vision board and mapping out your goals for 2023. However, it’s equally important to ensure that you reflect on how your previous year went, and 2022 provides us with the necessary data to do that.
For instance, reflecting on the year gives us insight into how well we did in achieving our goals, the nature and scale of setbacks we may have faced, and what we have managed to achieve so far.
I personally like writing a personal annual review where I bring together all my quarterly notes over the course of the year, reflect on my journal, and pick out 3-5 key themes.
I then write about what goals I had, what worked, what didn’t work, and what I’d like to do moving forward.
The process of thinking, noting down, and writing takes me a few days - but it certainly is worth it. It doesn’t have to be this extensive for you, but if you can afford to spend a few hours thinking about your year, you’ll find yourself pulling up some really important reflection points on 2022.
⚡️ ACTION: Spend at least 30 minutes each day, over the next 3-4 days, writing down your key learnings from 2022.
2. Make your goals plain
A 2015 study by psychologist Gail Matthews found that people wrote down their goals, they were 33 percent more successful in achieving them than those who formulated outcomes in their heads.
The act of writing down goals can make it feel more tangible, and ensuring your goals are specific makes it easier to work towards. It also helps you to do the work of figuring out precisely what you desire at a given time, giving you focus and clarity.
I like to use Notion to do my goal-setting, by creating a Notion space with different areas in my life.
I’m personally very visually-oriented, and very much work well with categories/thematic mapping of the key areas in my life:
You can achieve this on paper, or using other tools like Air Table, Excel sheets - whatever works for you. For each category, I try to limit myself to 3-4 goals each for focus, brevity and specificity. There are also some goals I have from last year, that I’ve carried over to this year. It’s okay if you need to adjust goals and extend timelines, too.
⚡️ ACTION: Create a Goal Board or list of goals which are specific and related to the key areas you value in your life.
3: Build a practical action plan
Perhaps one my favourite principles when creating goals is to create an associated action plan. Goals can seem pretty lofty and out of touch, especially when you’re pretty ambitious.
A great analogy for building an action plan is the following - it’s like hitting ‘search’ on the Google Maps app once you’ve input your intended destination. There’s a sense of confidence that arises when you know where you want to go, and how you intend to get there.
Once I’ve decided what kind of goal I want, I break it up into manageable chunks. For instance, one of the goals I had last year was to be able to do five pull-ups in one set by the end of the year.
My personal best was 9.
I was able to achieve this by breaking it up - rather than simply ‘try’ to do a pull-up, I spent time researching the best exercises, put together a routine based on progressive overload, optimised my diet to incorporate more protein and carbohydrates, and continually practised my form over the course of 4 months.
⚡️ ACTION: Break up your goal into small, actionable activities you can do over a defined time period.
4: Implement regular progress check ins
How do you know you’re on the right track? How do you know you’re going the right way when you’re on the way? It’s pretty easy - you check.
Don’t wait until you’re well into your plan to figure out if things are working. I typically give myself a month. A month is enough to figure out if:
The budgeting framework I’ve implemented has saved me more money than last month
The new diet and workout plan is yielding real results
The content I’m consuming is positively impacting my mental health and life outlook
A month may not be enough time to figure out whether you should entirely give up, but it is enough data to let you know if you should tweak a few things, try something different, or ask for feedback.
⚡️ ACTION: Implement a regular self-check in to assess whether your action plan is bringing you closer to your goal, or pushing you further away.
💡 Re-Cap:
Review and reflect on 2022.
Write down your goals in an accessible way.
Build a practical action plan.
Implement regular weekly, monthly or quarterly check ins.
💥 Extra Goodies
I’m reading: The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan
I’m listening to: The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals
I’m watching: How I accomplish all my Goals | My Goal Setting Framework and System - Lamide Elizabeth
Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life. – Les Brown