Goal settings

Goal setting is required for all of the 4 Pillars.

Generally speaking, meeting a goal is something that makes us fill Fulfilled; that said the ability, knowledge and overall skill of setting, measuring, following and meeting our goals belongs to the Wisdom pillar of our life because it’s a “classic” example of learning and applying Knowledge (though one may argue it also may belong to Fulfillment)

Let’s examine and learn what is the required knowledge and best practices of goal settings and how to do it in the Engineering way:

The first step it to ask the questions: why, what, how and when; we will start with the most important question any engineer needs to ask: WHY?

Why do we need goals?

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” - Lewis Carroll

We need goals so to direct our efforts - any effort that is not directed in the best way for our desired outcome is simply waste - it’s no different than running full speed on neutral (or even running on 3rd gear instead of 5th is still expending unnecessary energy for no return)

What our goals should be?

Our goals should be aligned with our “desires” - we need them to me what WE want to achieve and the results we are after (being internal or external)

Best practices:

• Our goals should be S.M.A.R.T - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

  • Specific - Specific and concise description of what should be accomplished.

  • Measurable - Unbiased metric with scale to measure the progress and score the results.

  • Achievable - The goal must be realistic in the sense that it can be achieved.

  • Relevant - The goal needs to be aligned with your overall life and circumstances.

  • Time-Bound - Time frame for the entire goal and preferably also split into milestones.

• Our goals should be challenging but realistic in our perspective:

  • If we don’t believe they can be achieved we will not exert our full energy on them.

  • If they are not challenging then we are not reaching our full potential and practically - leaving money on the table.

How to set our goals?

Short answer - follow the best practices in the What our goals should be? above

I will provide a general guide line / checklist to follow, the following should be viewed as general good advice and can and should be modified pending on personality bases, objectives, the Pillar of the goal (more on that in the different Pillars) and time span (a 10 year goal and a 3 month goal will not have the same plan and it will be not logical to spend the same amount of time on planning them)

1. Brainstorm (preferably with a mentor or a close person but by your self with do as well)

• Keep in mind your objectives, where you are now and the end result according to the time span for the goal

2. Write the goal - use a S.M.A.R.T template

3. Create a visual representation of the goal and put it where you can see it, add WHY it’s important and what it will mean to you when you achieve it

• consider sharing your goals with your close circle or on social media

4. Create milestones and small projects with a clear timeline

5. Add the milestones, projects and goals to your time / tasks managment system (calendar / task app / 2nd brain ext.)

6. Create a routine of checking the progress per the milestones - the routine should consist of objective evaluation and taking action in order to fill gaps when they occur

7. Celebrate the small wins on the way

When to set our goals?

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

It doesn’t get more simple than this - set the goal TODAY, the deadline and milestones can be set to future date (especially if you are dependent on outcome future circumstances) but still set the goal and put it to motion NOW; you will probably find that although somethings are holding you back others are possible to start working on right away)

A note on milestones:

A goal can and for most cases should be a “big event in the far future” and so to manage it properly and keep on track to make sure we meet that big event on the desired time it’s best practice to split it into milestones.

The spread and amount of the milestones can vary greatly and so when deciding on the milestones we should consider the span of time for the goal, the most logical and practical milestones in terms of how they support the progress towards the goal and how to measure hitting the milestone.