The Goal Setting Guide

Welcome to the 3,290 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday (🤯). Join the 61,177 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week.Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Revelo!If you’re a growing technology company, chances are you’re struggling to find talented developers right now. It’s a massive problem.Revelo is your solution—the largest talent platform to match you with vetted full-time remote developers in Latin America who work in US time zones. It offers an all-encompassing platform that covers payroll, benefits, compliance, and more, allowing you to hire full-time remote developers without the logistical headaches.Revelo helps companies like GitHub, Intuit, and Carta hire faster, so they can grow faster! Get matched with vetted candidates within 3 days—guaranteed. They even offer a 100% risk-free 14-day trial. If you’re not satisfied, you pay nothing.SPECIAL OFFER: Revelo is offering Curiosity Chronicle subscribers 20% off the first 3 months of any hire! Use the link below to take advantage of this crazy deal!Today at a Glance:Goal setting is everywhere—we all set goals, but very few do it well. Why? Goal setting is equal parts art and science—it’s a craft that must be honed like any other.The new framework for goal setting involves five core steps: (1) Set the Stage, (2) Identify BHAG, (3) Work Backwards, (4) Establish Process Goals, (5) Track & Adjust.It’s critical to avoid goal competition and paralysis. To stay focused, the framework only allows for 1 BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), 1 connected medium-term goal, and 2-3 daily process goals per category.The Goal Setting GuideWell, we made it. Welcome to 2022!2021 had a whole lot of twists and turns, but if you’re reading this, you managed to navigate them all and come out on the other side. Congratulations on surviving another year in this crazy simulation we call life.Pardon the cliché, but a new year signifies a new opportunity. It’s officially time to look ahead to the opportunity before us, plant a stake in the ground, and attack 2022 with boundless energy.Hopefully you rested up over the holiday break, because it’s time to go…An Intro to Goal SettingFrom a young age, we are taught to set goals—first for our grades and athletic endeavors, next for our careers, and last for our health and lives.Goal setting is everywhere—we all set goals, but very few do it well.Take me as an example. I'm very goal-oriented. But I've set—and then failed to achieve—many over the years. I would start the new year with an ambitious set of goals and then slowly fall short on most of them.Discouraged, I started reading more on goal setting to understand why…What I’ve learned: Goal setting is equal parts art and science—it’s a craft that must be honed like any other. Most importantly, there is a clear framework for successful goal setting—a better way.Put simply, consistent goal achievement is never an accident.In this piece, I will share my new framework for goal setting.Goal Setting: A New FrameworkFirst, it’s worth pointing out that most of us struggle with the same set of issues with respect to goal setting.The most common issues:Too Many: Goal competition occurs, with goals effectively competing against one another for your time and mindshare. Too Loose: Weak, unstructured goals lacking clear metrics or time bounds.Not Tied to Actions: Lack of clear process actions to achieve them.Unfit Environment: Environment unsuited for consistent execution.If you've struggled with goal setting (like me), chances are one of these issues is to blame.But let’s get to the better way—a new framework for goal setting that will allow you to set and smash your goals for 2022.It involves five core steps:Set the StageIdentify BHAGWork BackwardsEstablish Process GoalsTrack & AdjustThe general framework is fixed, but its application is intended to be dynamic and iterative.Let's dive right in…Step 1: Set the StageIn the first step, you’ll establish the categories that you'll be building goals around.For me, it’s three:PersonalProfessionalHealthNote: I find that covering these three areas forces progress in all major domains of my life, but some people will likely prefer a more narrow focus with just one. That’s totally fine!Within each category you choose, you only have room for:1 BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): Your big, bold goal.1 Connected Medium-Term Goal: Interim goal on the path to the BHAG.2-3 Daily Process Goals: Daily actions and habits.That's it—that’s all you’re allowed. Nothing more. The clarity and simplicity this limitation forces is a core feature of the framework.Step 2: Identify BHAGYour BHAG—Big Hairy Audacious Goal—is exactly what it sounds like. It should be big and ambitious (but stop short of being completely ridiculous).Think of this as your North Star for the year.It's the metaphorical poster on your wall—motivating on an abstract macro scale, but perhaps too grand and scary to be motivating o...