What's the difference between someone who's always stuck in the planning phase and someone who actually achieves their goals? It boils down to proper goal definitions.
In short, actionable goals are much more effective than vague generalities.
For example, saying "I'm going to learn a new language" is a vague goal. It offers no actionable steps that you can act on. Instead, "Every day I'm going to study flash cards for 45 minutes and have a conversation with my language partner" is much more action-oriented.
Heidi Grant Halvorson, the associate director for the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University Business School and the author of the bestselling book Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, raises four key points to making vague goals more actionable:
- Establish your goal: Learn a language
- Break the goal into three subgoals: Order food in a new language. Converse with a local. Speak with a language partner without needing to translate.
- Create an action plan to achieve subgoals: Study flashcards every day. Watch four hours of Spanish television a week.
- If-Then plan for subgoals: If I struggle in my language partner conversation, I'll write down words that I didn't know. If I can't remember those words after the conversation, I'll define them and add them to my flashcards.
If you need more help turning your vague goals into actionable ones, this tool over at Harvard Business Review should help.
What are your current goals? What are you doing to ensure they're actionable? Let us know in the comments below.
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