Master the Art of Goal Setting: 5 Methods That Guarantee Results

Include these components in your goals to achieve your 2024 goals.

I have tried many different goal-setting methods, but I have five that I think are the best.

I like these ones because they all involve an element I find to be valuable when writing and planning each of my goals.

I’m going to give a short description, but then link to an article that fully explains them.

(If you are not a member yet, you can read this for free with this link.)

Goal-Setting Techniques

SMARTER Goals

S→ Specific. You want clear goals that are as specific as possible. You want ones that include all the other items mentioned in this acronym.

M→ Measurable. You can only manage what gets measured. Your goal needs to define what and how you will measure your progress and success.

A→ Achievable. You want to create goals that are reasonable and attainable.

R→ Realistic. You want goals that are reasonable given your situation and available resources.

T→ Time bound. You want to create goals with an end point, so you can track progress and determine success.

E→ Evaluate. Evaluating yourself while you are working towards your goal and after you reach the end point helps you continuously make positive progress.

R→ Reviewable. If you include each one of the components of this acronym your goal will be reviewable. A review of yourself helps you see the growth you made from attempting to achieve each goal. This step also gives the opportunity to build upon them with a new set of SMART(ER) goals.

PACT Goals

The PACT process encourages getting started and experimenting through actions**.** It has two unique components that I really like, which are the purposeful and continuous steps.

P→ Purposeful. This is your goal’s foundation, the goal’s meaning, and the passion driving you towards this goal. Purposeful goals are ones that are aligned with your values.

A→ Actionable and Achievable. In this step, you are thinking about what goals are realistic and achievable for you and the daily actions and habits that will get you closer to achieving your goals.

C→ Continuous. With the continuous step you are looking to create a repeatable routine. The whole PACT progress is about trying to make progress continuously. The continuous step is also a reminder to continually track progress and assess yourself.

T→ Trackable. This is deciding how and what you will measure so you can determine whether you succeeded, or not; it is measuring success through your effort and progress.

You can read more about both SMARTER & PACT Goals in this article, which goes it much more detail:

LASER Focused Goals

This is another method, but is similar to the two I talked about above. The components are:

L→ Limited. This is where you set a time limit, an end point for your goal.

A→ Achievable. This is reminding you to keep your goal realistic and something that is actually attainable for you, in an appropriate timeframe.

S→ Specific. This is a reminder to be specific about all the detail involved when you write out each goal.

E→ Evaluated. In this step, you evaluate your progress, which gives feedback. This feedback helps you improve upon where you are relative to the timeframe you have left and/or helps you move forward or restart in a better way, with an improved plan.

R→ Repeatable. This step is unique to this method, and in this method you are reminded to make sure that the strategy and plan you create to reach your goal is something that is adjustable and repeatable. With the evaluation step, you may identify a better course to move forward and if it is repeatable, you have the ability to change one thing to course correct versus starting all over.

Many plans to reach your goals are just a initial guess, and therefore, an experiment. And in the LASER Goals method, you are encouraged to have a repeatable process so you can just change what isn’t working if you are still working on the goal, or what didn’t work and try again, if you have reached the end point.

You can read more details about the LASER Goals (and SMARTER Goals method) in this article:

The GOALS method

This method includes a unique step: “obstacles”, which none of the others explicitly have.

G→ Goal. This is what your goal is. Be specific as possible

O→ Obstacles. This is when you think about anything that could stop you from achieving your goal; brainstorming any potential obstacles that could get in your way. You should also think about how you can overcome or avoid any of these obstacles to give yourself a better chance of success.

A→ Approach. This component describes how you will begin. This is when you think about all the details beforehand, like time frame, budget, and resources needed.

L→ Lead To. This is the ideal outcome your goal leads to.

S→ Strategy. This component is how you will work towards achieving your goal. It is your plan for goal success.

You can read more on the GOALS Method in this article. The article goes in depth with questions to consider as you write out each of the components of this acronym.

The 7 R’s of Goal Setting

These are all the things to consider and include as you write each of your goals.

1. Results & Outcomes. What results do you hope to see? What is your ideal outcome?
2. Route to Goal Achievement. This is how you will reach your goal; your plan to successful goal achievement.
3. Resources: This is what you need to achieve your goal and then what you have available to you (time, energy, people, skills, money?).
4. Responsibilities. What are the habits, skills, and actions/behaviors you need to perform to complete your goal?
5. Remain Focused. This component is a reminder to keep your “eye on the prize” and to create an environment that is conducive to you succeeding. For example, removing temptations or distractions.
6. Reward. What will you gain from succeeding or what will you reward yourself with when you succeed?
7. Rejoice OR Revise. In this step, you are done working on your goal, either by achieving it so you rejoice, or because you reached the end of your timeframe and it is time to evaluate your progress and how you could improve and revise your plan to try again.

You can read a complete description of the 7 R’s in this article:

I like these goal-setting methods because each is comprehensive and includes components I find valuable to help you achieve your goals.

I included all 5 methods because there is no one method that includes ALL of the components I find to be the most valuable when I set my goals.

But If I was to sum up the best way to write a goal, it would be to be specific, including as much detail as possible.

Specificity

Because there is no method that includes all the important components, I will follow one method and include the component(s) it is missing

The components and steps that each goal needs to achieve specificity are:

1. Identify exactly what you want to achieve, the results, and your ideal outcome.
2. Being realistic and reasonable about what you want to achieve. Making it an attainable outcome in the given timeframe. (It’s ok not to have all the skills or knowledge necessary at the time, but the timeframe just needs to be one that takes things like that into account.)
3. Identifying something to measure.
4. A defined timeframe; an end point.
5. A plan that outlines the steps you will take from start to finish. A process that is repeatable is a bonus.
6. Continuous evaluation of your progress and tracking the thing you identified to measure.
7. A review/evaluation step once you reach the end point.
8. A revision to the process and then trying again if you didn’t succeed.

You will see commonalities, such as being specific and realistic about the goals you create in most of these methods. They are in so many because these are especially helpful for your goal achievement.

Then you will see other components in a couple methods and then some unique components in just one method.

Final Words

Each of the methods I’ve included are great and could be used individually for each goal you set.

But you might be like me and see the value in some elements not included in the acronym you choose to follow, you can add what is missing.

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