target picture is difficult, then make drafts, think about the dream, imagine the result, make several versions. Think about it, analyze why exactly this is what you want in this form. And after a few iterations, get your target picture. The main thing is to understand what and how it should be in the future so that you are satisfied. Our path is a route from the current situation to the goal. But the goal is not the end point. There are many of them. Goals are the results that need to be achieved in order for the target picture to be brought to life. The target picture will help you immediately approach planning intelligently and set goals in the right sequence.
Goal setting
After we have figured out where we want to move, the most interesting thing begins. We need to plan how we will do this and set goals correctly. As you may have noticed, for me the goal is the result that will lead me to the dream. That is, to the realization of my desires. I am not talking about the purpose of life, I do not consider the word «goal» as something global. A goal is a tool that allows you to capture the characteristics of a future version of my current situation in order to build a reversible plan to achieve it. For me, the desires themselves and the correct system of how to move towards them are more important. Goal setting is the next stage after the target picture, and it is not the last. Therefore, in this section we will not be preaching about how important the goal is, and say that an aimless life is bad. Many books have been written about this, research has been proven and tested in practice. It will only be about how to organize the goal-setting process so that it produces progress, not stress.
Now I am writing a book about my system and methods, but my relationship with goals has gone through all the typical stages from disappointment to admiration. They developed approximately according to this scenario:
1. Carefree childhood. I’m sitting on my parents’ neck, I’m studying at school and I don’t suspect what awaits me in the wonderful adult world;
2. Then the student years. I just live without thinking about the future. Only worry about being expelled from the university;
3. Graduation time is approaching. I promise my girlfriend a car and wait for the best employers to start fighting to invite me to work;
4. Welcome to adulthood. I understand what exactly Kurt Cobain meant to say.
«No one will die a virgin. Life will fuck everyone»
They don’t give me an opportunity to work, I live in a dorm with cockroaches and I don’t know what to do. I work as a system administrator at a service station, then I connect the Internet to apartments, I begin to hate myself and this life. Not to mention the status of a babbler who promised a car and boasted that everything was under control. As a result, I get a job at the factory, and The Groundhog Day begins;
5. Work, home, work. Goals? What goals? No, I haven’t heard of them. Everything is done either by acquaintance, or by just getting lucky. I live, work, endure and blame everyone around me that everything is the way it is;
6. It seems that something needs to be done. I try to read books. They write about goals and success. But it’s easy to write in books, everything is different in life, so I call BS on your goals;
7. I watch the movie «The secret». Wow! You don’t have to do anything, just visualize the desires, and everything will work out. How stupid it is, I won’t do it;
8. I really want the changes to start by themselves. They say it is necessary to write down the annual goals on paper, burn, dissolve the ashes in a glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve and drink. Yes, I really did it. It didn’t work;
9. They say that it is necessary to write down annual goals on paper. Just do whatever you want, and it will come true. The power of writing by hand will work, and the result is in your pocket. I’ve been writing A4 sheets for a couple of years, nothing happens, I just write out of habit and I don’t believe in it myself;
10. I learn about the methods of setting goals. They advise setting goals according to SMART. So that everything is clear and detailed. So that even the salary should be specified, with a deadline and at the current price level. The goals have become longer, but still useless;
11. Disappointment. No matter how you write down these goals, nothing comes true, everything is useless. I have enough of deceiving myself and keeping my head in the clouds. I will write down real goals, simpler ones that I can really master in a year. As a result, they come true, but they are so small that they look more like tasks, not goals;
12. I’m moving to Moscow, life is getting more complicated. I find a job getting to which takes me about 3 hours. In the subway I start reading books about IT. It’s necessary to become a programmer;
13. I learn about Agile and the word «sprint». Let’s try to set goals for the quarter, not for the year;
14. Well will you look at that! It works better. People, look at how I set goals – I’m a genius! No, Semyon, you’re not a genius. In the book «Just Space» Katya Lengold has already written everything. If you don’t know about this book, then be sure to read and subscribe to Katya. Her book brought Agile approaches into people’s daily lives and shortened their path to the dream. Katya, respect. Keep doing what you’re doing!
15. I read all the books about time management that come across. I start to read books about the brain to avoid thinking traps and make quarterly goals clearer. I find out about the zone of the closest development of Lev Vygotsky. It turns out that you don’t need to strive to get out of your comfort zone, that’s the twist. It turns out that I drank ashes with champagne for nothing;
16. I read and experiment further. I get to the book «Essentialism. The Path to Simplicity» by Greg McKeon. It hits the head of time management with a stick. I understand that the main thing is not productivity, but selectivity. To have time to do more, you need to plan more. There is not enough time to do everything, there should be fewer goals, but they should be important;
17. I’m wrestling with the ways to give up the least important among all the important things. I read about Gestalt psychology and learn more about true desires. It is difficult, incomprehensible, but it seems that this is the only way to set priorities in life correctly;
18. At the time I observe goal-setting at work. Managers make mistakes in goal setting. I collect them, reflect, draw conclusions;
19. An interesting observation. When I decompose work on goals in my task tracker, I notice that sometimes I forget about the goal, but the things I do still lead to it. Then why do they write so much about goal-setting? In Ivan Zamesin’s blog, I read a review of the book «The Theory of Luck» by Scott Adams. There I get acquainted with the principle of «System against goals». This becomes a powerful upgrade of my goal-setting system and finally puts everything in its place. Of course, I also advise you to read the book;
20. I tell my friend Dima Moroz about this. He says, «But there is the OKR method by Google,» and tells how it works;
21. I study OKR. I take all the best out of it and make a simplified version for myself. I’ve been living with this for a year, I understand more and more
