A (Re)Construction of Goals

We’re coming up on the season of goal setting – the time where we start thinking about everything we want to accomplish in the New Year. Early November is when I personally start thinking about things I might want to focus on in the next year, and start the process of reviewing the previous year.

And as I’ve begun setting and reviewing goals, I’ve also started asking around how others are viewing their own goals, as well as how they even approach the idea of creating them. And I realized something:

There doesn’t seem to be any type of consensus on what a goal even is. Let alone how to set one.

I’ve noticed that people fall onto some type of spectrum when it comes to goal setting – from those who set the ultra precise SMART goals, to those who seemingly take it day by day. And I know people who live great lives on either side.

With a slight confusion of terms and methodology of creating goals, over the past few years I’ve developed a framework of sorts on how to construct goals that work for me.

Set the values foundation

Wherever someone falls on that goals spectrum mentioned above, I think a foundational truth is that any goal that we set should be built on a singular foundation: our values – what is most important to us individually. Any created goal that doesn’t help support our values should be questioned – so starting with your values has to come first.

Goals are guesses …

Second most important after the values foundation, is the realization that goals are guesses. For some people this freaks them out. For others, this is a tremendous freedom. The reality is that we don’t know (1) who we’re going to really be in the future and (2) what the future even holds. So any goal we set, we need to realize that some of it is just going to be a guess. And that’s ok. The initial goal we set might be entirely off-based and we end up abandoning it and pivoting our focus or resources in another direction, and that’s okay. The further out your goal is, the more likely it’s going to be wrong – or at least require a large adjustment. (This sounds familiar.)

… but they also give direction

So what’s the point of setting goals if we don’t have a commitment to them? Fair question, but I’m of the belief that setting goals gives us direction, a roadmap of sorts that helps us align our lives (time, money, energy, and ability) with our values. Setting goals can help architect a plan that gives us concrete steps to take in this journey. Yes, we might need to make adjustments – but at least we’re moving. It takes more energy to climb out of a recliner chair than it does to modify the direction we’re walking in.

Resolutions versus goals

New Year’s Resolutions vs New Year’s Goals is something that should be addressed. A resolution is saying something like “I’m going to be kinder to my children this year,” or “I’m going to get back in shape,” or “I’m going to save more money this year.” Valuable intentions, for sure. But it’s hard to determine if you’ve actually accomplished it unless you measure it somehow, in some way. So while I like the resolutions idea, I’ve found that in order to determine if you’ve actually achieved it, or what steps to take towards achieving it, you have to be a bit more specific.

Input vs outcome

Over the past couple of years, this is where things really started to shift for me. I’ve always been extremely Outcome driven. For example, on the professional side, I want my annual income to be X, or my new assets under management to be Y, my number of new clients to be Z. These goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

But.

They’re outside my ultimate control. As a firm believer of Focusing on the overlap of Things That Matter and Things I Can Control, these goals didn’t really fit into that framework. I think they’re still important (well, maybe – read on*) – but I’m not sure I can determine if I was successful in a given year based on something outside of my control. They’re what I consider Outcome goals.

Other goals – date nights with my wife, family board meetings with my kids, writing articles, client service structures, exercising, friendship developments, reading quality content – all of these are things well within my control. They fall within that overlap of Things I should be Focusing on. There are what I would call Input Goals.

And this is where things get a little fuzzy.

A lot of the time, the Input goals directly impact and fulfill the Outcome goals – but they don’t guarantee them. The Outcome goals let me know if something is really working and may even provide resources for other goals, but they aren’t what I focus a lot of my energy on. Outcome goals are things that provide some level of “gravitational pull” – big goals that I envision and dream about happening. But envisioning and dreaming won’t lead them to their potential fulfillment – actionable items will. Input goals.

Let’s use an example in my professional world: I set a goal of Z new clients in 2020. I cannot ultimately control if a prospective client says Yes or No to working with me. I simply can’t. So this isn’t an Input goal, it’s more an Outcome goal. But how can I still try and achieve that arguably admirable goal? I can set Input goals on things that I can control – writing articles, sending newsletters, doing amazing client service, hosting events, etc.

A simple way of distinguishing Input vs Outcome goal is asking how much control do you have over it barring extreme circumstances. If I have an Input goal of running 5x a week on average over the year (full disclosure: I don’t, but arguably should) and tear my ACL in March, chances are I’m not going to hit that goal. The running goal is still an Input and within my control, but an extreme circumstance outside my control prevented it from happening.

Some friends of mine don’t even set or measure Outcome goals – they focus and measure exclusively Input goals. They know the end results and Outcomes, but they only focus and set plans for the controllable Inputs. This is super hard for me as I’m still somewhat results-driven, so I end up having both, with around a 3:1 ratio of Input:Outcome type of goals I’m working towards.

Measure, manage and maintain

“What gets measured gets managed,” goes the old Peter Drucker quote. I find this to be incredibly true in most areas of life, and goal setting and tracking are no different. Once I settle in on my goals, I keep them in front of me (personal goals printed in my closet to review before bed, professional goals posted on a wall in my office, and a table with Notion to update both.) Even beyond that, I have a daily habit tracker app of 10 activities I want to do on a regular basis that help support the longer-term annual goal. You can use an app, a spreadsheet, or even a piece of paper to tally up the habits you’re building to fulfill the goals.

Or, if you’re not insane like me, you can simply print your goals and keep them in front of you.

Diversify your goals

I realize a lot of smart people say to stick to 1-3 measurable, attainable goals for a given year and focus only on those. I get that. But for me, focusing on that few of objectives can leave me not as well rounded. And so I like to embrace the 5-F Model – Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness, and Finances. (As a serendipitous bonus, Fident Financial also starts with F, making my own 6-F Model).

Life is seasonal – there are going to be times when our effort and focus has to go to one of these F areas more than the others, but if we’re entirely depleted in any of these, everything has the potential to suffer. So every year I include at least one goal under each of the F’s – a de minimis threshold, I guess you could say. I usually end up with 15-20 goals a year I’m shooting for in total across the categories.

*Beware of vanity goals …

I remember sharing an assets under management goal with a friend recently, and he asked me why I set that rounded figure. I stuttered over my response, saying something about achieving economies of scale, overcoming imposter syndrome, blah blah. But the reality was that figure just sounded impressive.

Similarly, I pay way too much attention to the traffic on this site, and although I’ve never actually “constructed” the goal, I sometimes think of how validating it would be if I averaged 10,000 visits a month. If I were to make this my goal, it would be super tempting to tailor my content to things that I know attract the most traffic to other sites (market predictions, fear-mongering, get-rich-quick tactics). Having that viewership number as a goal would detract me from writing about the true purpose of this site – helping people calibrate their money to their values.

I’d define a vanity goal as one that exists which in no way supports your underlying values.

… and others people’s goals

Similarly, you should beware of goals that others set that you take as your own. As my friend Ashby Daniels, a fellow financial advisor in Pittsburgh wisely asks for many decisions and goals: “At what cost?” Some friends or colleagues may have higher income goals, or a new home goal, or a certain vacation goal and are willing to make sacrifices to achieve those goals that you might not be. That’s absolutely fine – you be you, I’ll be me, and let them be them.

I write this not as some multi-millionaire running a Fortune 500 company – nor as someone who has all of life figured out and is preaching the secret sauce. I’m learning more each day, each year, and I’m sure some of what I’ve written above I’ll end up abandoning or adjusting at some point in the future.

I’ve wrestled with goal-setting for sometime, especially the Input vs Outcome concept, and only now have a bit more clarity on it.

My point is to offer some thoughts in a public way on how I have reconstructed goal setting personally, since I believe strongly in the value setting goals in our lives. Sometimes we just need a framework to think within before we create those goals.