Defining Bold Goals That Support Your Vision Of Success
Frameworks to define goals that will help you achieve success
When I ask people I mentor or coach to define success, they respond with some great-sounding goals but are not always able to define what success looks like. They might say they want to achieve a title or a role or a certain amount of money. They sound great but when I dig deeper, I learn that these goals are not really in support of their definition of success. They became goals because this is what was expected of them, what they might have seen others aspire for, or limited by where they are today in life In today’s post, I will share a series of exercises that can help to really define what success could look like for YOU. Then goals can follow to help support what you want to achieve.
In this post, I will introduce you to the concepts that worked for me. At the end of the post, you will be able to
Define what success means to you across all aspects of life and not just your career.
Begin with the end in mind by envisioning how life should be on our last day on earth
Translate what that end vision looks like in all aspects of life
Prioritize aspects of life that help you move toward your end vision
Take stock of where you are today through
Identify Goals in areas that you want to improve to achieve your vision
I help many people think through their life’s purpose, set bold goals, define a plan and find the support to achieve them. I am considering creating a course based on my own experiences of successes and failures and synthesizing learnings from the dozens of leaders I have worked with and from the hundreds of books I read into this short course. If you are interested in a course that will unlesh your career, then please fill this form.
1. Define what success means to you
When we talk about success, we often think about only a career. But that is only one part of our lives. Ideally, we should think about many aspects of our lives. These aspects are based on what is important to each individual. As you think about success consider which of these aspects are important for your life.
Relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and community.
🌟 Health
🌟 Personal Development
🌟 Career
🌟 Recreation or fun
🌟 Spirituality
🌟 Mental Wellness
🌟 Money
🌟 Giving Back
🌟 Add anything else that is important to you.
2. Begin with the end in mind
Starting with what our end of life could be can be a very humbling exercise. As we all know, the only difference between when we are born and when we die is a pair of clothes. We come with nothing and take nothing. So what is it that we want to leave behind is an important question. How do we want to be remembered? I first did this exercise a decade ago and I often read it to see if it is still relevant in my life today. If possible, go into nature to do this exercise. But if that is not possible, find a quiet space and imagine when your end of life might be. I know this is not easy as it is not fun to think about death.
A few question prompts that might help you get started
What do you want to have achieved by the time you die? Remember this could be sudden and a few days from now or a few decades later. But having this written down can be like a compass for your life.
How do you want to be remembered?
What do you want people to say at your funeral?
What do you really want to do in my life?
What do you really want for yourself in your heart of hearts?
What would you be most excited or enthusiastic about achieving personally?
Answer these questions in the context of the different aspects of life. Here are a couple of examples.
I am healthy and independent. I am surrounded by family and friends. I am leaving behind my books with personalized notes inside them to everybody I love. My kids are set for life as they are strong, independent, hard-working, and kind boys. They are surrounded by their loving cousins. They will be there for my husband. My husband is taken care of. I am content and happy to have created a path for many in their lives. Everybody who attends my funeral knows that I loved them. They might be sad that I am no longer with them but they will rejoice for the life I have had.
I am grateful for a life full of love, family, and success. I have achieved a lot in my life from my career, financially, and giving back. I am able to leave behind a lot for my family and the causes I care about. I am leaving behind a community of like-minded people who will support each other and continue the impact I started. I am so happy that I got to travel to 50 countries and tried food from many many cultures. I have taken cooking classes in 100 cities and have been able to bring that back to my family. Everybody will miss my cooking and gatherings but my kids will continue the tradition.
Note how they have a bit of health, family, love, fun, and financial /career success in them. But if we do this right, we will see that the most important things will bubble to the top. We might also realize that carer and financial success are in support of this end vision and not the goal by itself.
If imagining your end state is hard for you, then you can skip that and move to the next step.
3. Prioritize what aspects of life are important for you.
Stack rank what aspects of life are important for you to achieve the vision you created in step 2. If you were not able to do that exercise, you can still prioritize what aspects of your life are important to you. List them in decreasing order of priority. It could look like this
Health
Family
Money
Career
Giving Back
Relationships
..
I typically re-assess this list at the end of every year as I plan my goals for the next.
4. Define a meaningful vision for your life.
The previous two exercises give you an idea of what each aspect of your life should look like. Some examples are below but write whatever they mean to you. Don’t limit them. Here is where you think big and bold visions for yourself
🌟 Health: Be fit to be able to exercise and stay active. I don’t want to be limited to a wheelchair or be dependent on anybody.
🌟 Family: Be surrounded by immediate and extended family members who love spending time with me.
🌟 Money: Be financially independent and still be making $200k/year to live the lifestyle of independence, adventure through travel, supporting my family, and giving back. I also want to have assets to leave for my children. I want them to get started with a house each.
🌟 Career: I retired at the peak of my career as a CTO/SVP/.. to coach people during my retirement. As you define career goals, another important concept to think about is Ikigai. This exercise can be done separately or when you think about the career you choose. I wrote a detailed post on Ikigai. A short excerpt is at the end of this post as well.
🌟 Giving Back: I volunteer coaching young people. I donate to the causes I care about and do an annual volunteer trip to Nepal
🌟 Relationships: I have friends that I get to visit every few weeks. I get to travel the world with them
As you write these goals, think about why these goals are important for you. Knowing the why will give you more energy to achieve them.
5. Take stock of where you are
This Wheel of Life exercise will help you understand if you are spending your time and energy on things that are important to you.
Print a wheel of life image from the internet and write out your top aspects of life on different segments of the wheel. The wheel can have all aspects or just the top few. That is your call.
Then spend some time thinking about how satisfied you are with each aspect of your life on a scale from 1-10 (with 10 being the most satisfied). Your satisfaction level can be about how you feel today in these areas to achieve your end vision.
You will end up with a visual of how satisfied you are in your life in all aspects of your life. E.g, you might rate health at 2, a career at 5, relationships at 8, recreation at 5, spirituality at 5, finance at 3, Giving back at 5, and personal growth at 8. While not all of them are at 10, you don’t have to double down on improving all aspects of your life.
Review the priorities you set for yourself. If your top three priorities in step 3 above are Health, Family, and Money, you can see that you have to improve in the areas of Health and Money based on your satisfaction level. They were only at 2 and 3. You have a long way to get them to a 10.
6. Define goals
Most people start here but I hope you can see why starting here might not be purposeful. Now that you have spent some time thinking about what your ideal end life would look like, and which areas you have to improve, you can set goals. Goals are simply ways to help you achieve what you want in life.
🌟 Relationships - What are your goals in building or improving relationships? E.g. Calling a friend every week, spending more quality time with your partner or kids, visiting friends/family, etc.,
🌟 Personal Development - What do you want to learn? What skills do you want to develop? How do you want to improve? E.g. learning how to manage your finances, how to invest, how to speak in public forums, how to cook, etc.,
🌟 Health - What are your health goals? Are there health issues you want to address? What are your dietary and exercise goals? What about mental wellness? E.g. exercise 4-5 times a week, learn how to meditate, go on a quiet retreat once a year, etc
🌟 Career - What are your career goals? E.g. promotion in a year, changing a job, starting a business, teaching a class, etc.,
🌟 Recreation or fun - What do you enjoy doing in life? What are your fun goals?
🌟 Spirituality - What are your spiritual goals?
🌟 Mental Wellness - How will you improve or stay mentally well?
🌟 Finance - How much money do you want to earn?
🌟 Giving Back - Is giving back important to you? If so how will give back?
Some of these goals are interdependent. For ex., spirituality might be a way to improve mental wellness, personal development goals might be shaped because of your career goals.
Some Principles
As you set goals, keep some principles in mind
👉 Think if your goals are totally achievable and in your comfort zone, slightly big, and get you in a discomfort zone or completely aggressive and in the delusional zone. None of them are right or wrong. It is up to you. I would encourage you to just not stay in your comfort zone if you are physically and mentally well.
👉 Make sure these goals are truly a representation of you and not others’ expectations of you
👉 Ensure your goals are not driven by social media or what you see others achieve
👉 Goals are not fixed or permanent. Be flexible in adapting to where life takes you
👉 Don’t limit yourself based on where you are today
👉 Don’t be apologetic
👉 Don’t be so focused on your goals that you forget to enjoy the journey or miss some really interesting turns that life might take you on.
Defining Career goals by identifying your purpose, your Ikigai
I wrote a detailed post on Ikigai. Print out the following image and set aside 30 mins of quiet time to go through the exercise
What are my Strengths?: We all have unique strengths and it is important for you to know what yours are. It is easy to focus on what we are not good at and try to improve on our weaknesses but focusing on leveraging our strengths is far more helpful. If you have taken a Strengths Finder assessment before, find your results. If not, reflect on what you think your strengths are. I frequently spend time assessing my strengths by reflecting, gathering feedback from others, and using tools like Strengths Finders.
What am I Passionate about? It is very important to understand what you really care about and what will have you jump out of bed every day. It is important for you to understand what impact you want to have in life. I spend time periodically to assess what “impact” means for me and what I am passionate about. I ensure I follow my passion and rarely get distracted by projects that I am not passionate about. What drives me every day is ways to help others. And in the end, my hope is to make a dent in poverty.
What are the gaps in the world? What problems in the world, industry, or your company would you like to fill? We can be passionate about a lot of things in the world but if we are not solving a customer/business need, then it just becomes a passion project with less support. But when we apply our passion and skills to fill a true gap, it results in a career.
What can help you earn a living? If you want to find a purpose then this step is not relevant. But if you want to find a purposeful career, then finding something that you can be paid for is important. You might care about solving a lot of things. E.g. taking care of animals, empowering non-profits, social enterprises, and startups by helping them get closer to their customers, and building skills in entrepreneurship and product management. But if you are not able to find a way to make a living from it, then it won’t be a career.
1) Subscribe to receive future posts directly in your inbox
2) Share this article with others who might benefit from this
3) Like or comment below to share your ideas.