Goal Setting 101: Why Creating Functional Goals Matters
If January had a universal theme, goal setting would have been the perfect candidate. Just think about it: what’s the #1 thing that pretty much everyone is tackling during those first weeks of the year? Plans for 2025 (or, in other words: goals). But did you know that, to be effective, well-crafted goals must follow a certain structure? In this article, I will walk you through those “must-have” ingredients that your goals need to have.
If you are the type of person who enjoys reflecting on your yearly accomplishments and creating new resolutions for the upcoming year whenever the last week of December hits, you’re probably not a total newbie to the whole concept of goal setting. Over the past decade, the personal development industry has told us ad nauseam that a plan without a purpose and a clear expected outcome attached is nothing but a dream. Something that, most likely, will never come to fruition.
As it happens to most personal & professional development-related things, the truth lies somewhere in between. Yes, functional goals need to be infused with a clear sense of purpose and a clear outcome, but the list of “required ingredients” doesn’t end there (but at the same time, it’s not an impossibly long laundry list either). What’s more, not all goals have to be big and life-altering. It’s perfectly possible to set up goals to tackle all those small, routine-like things that give both color and texture to your days.
If you already set yearly (or monthly) goals for yourself but you have noticed that those “important goals” almost always fall through the cracks and end up forgotten ( or even worse, they just get automatically added to the never-ending list of “things you just have to do”), your goal setting process may need a quick overhaul.
But before jumping into the list of must-have ingredients that a functional goal must have, let’s do a quick review of what a goal is and why having them is so important.
Yes, Goals Are Everywhere (So, Why Should You Care About Setting Functional Goals?)
Personal goals. Career goals. Travel goals. Couple goals. Body goals. Life goals. And (of course) money goals. If the goal-setting process makes you feel slightly overwhelmed, I don’t blame you at all. Nowadays goals are associated with everything, from the way you take your Sunday family breakfast to the outfits you wear for your Thursday evening errand rounds.
Somehow, our productivity-obsessed culture has managed to turn an important once-a-year/once-a-month reflection into a never-ending cycle of performance pursuits. Nowadays, whenever we stop to think about the direction we want to give to our lives, the question we ask ourselves is not “How can I infuse my life with good experiences?” but “How can I have more [insert random thing here]?” Ultimately, quantity is what matters. As they stand now, popular goal-setting processes that only focus on the outcomes lead us to an endless cycle of wanting more.
The problem with this approach? When everything becomes important, nothing really is important. We want to have more free time, but also be in the best shape of our lives, have a house worthy of the Architectural Digest cover, raise well-behaved children and, of course, have a meaningful career. All at the same time.
When we use an approach to goal-setting that only focuses on the outcomes, where everything is important and worth pursuing, we lose ourselves in the motions and our focus disappears. Suddenly, we forget that we used to care more about certain things and not so much about others. Eventually, when life gets in the way (as it usually does), the unrealistic expectations we aimed for reveal their true nature, and the things we wanted never come to pass we end up disappointed and demotivated. And then the cycle starts again.
So why should you care about setting functional goals using a process that focuses not only on the outcomes but also uses your own sense of intuition? It’s simple. Such a process will allow you to prioritize and put in the center the things that matter to you. Things that, let’s be honest, not everyone sees as important. Things that, in fact, other folks may see as irrelevant but that make all the difference to you.
Are you interested in trying out a more fulsome goal-setting process? Then let’s talk about the essential ingredients that your new goals should have.
The Ingredients of a Functional Goal
There are basically four (deceptively) simple things that you need to consider when building a functional (or personalized) goal:
- Something meaningful to you, that matters personally.
It doesn’t matter if the rest of the world thinks that this is trite or you should be pursuing other things. As long as this thing resonates with you deeply, you are good. If you are struggling to find something that resonates with you, it’s time to go dreamy. Think about all the “crazy” dreams you ever had. Do you still hear any of those things loudly calling out your name?
- A realistic time frame.
The golden question you need to answer to set a realistic time frame is quite simple: “Will I be able to achieve this in X time if my current life circumstances don’t change?”. A great example of this is deciding you want to put a 40K downpayment in 3 years, but right now you are underemployed and the current job market hasn’t been very forgiving. Will you be able to hit the 30K savings mark in 3 years under your current circumstances? Only you can tell.
- A detailed Milestones breakdown.
Once the time frame is set, you need to break down all the stages you need to go through to hit that goal. It’s a reverse-engineering process. Let’s retake the previous point example to see how a milestone breakdown could work. If I were committed to saving 30K in 3 years, I would calculate how much I need to save per week for the next 36 months. Knowing that number would allow me to create a savings plan that makes sense for my current situation.
- Flexibility.
Aka, the willingness to readjust as you go and life gets in the way…as it will inevitably do because Murphy’s Law is 100% real. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that nothing will go wrong. If you miss a deadline, if a task doesn’t get completed in time, or if a major life change manifests itself, how will you reshift and adjust? Are you willing to? Can you run different scenarios in your head? If the answer to these questions is a yes (or even a strong maybe), then you might just have a solid goal. However, if the idea of making adjustments makes your jaw clench… well, maybe it’s time to review the goal.
Wrap-Up: Functional Goal Setting Does Matter
Before we wrap up, here is a final reminder: goals are for everyone. Just because you don’t see yourself as a high-performing, productivity-crazed individual doesn’t mean setting functional goals is not for you. Not at all. Small, super-personal goals also matter. In fact, more often than not, consistently achieving small goals is what sets a successful person apart from the crowd.
Everyone should have functional goals and all goals matter. Don’t let anyone convince you that they don’t.