Should We Set Goals, Objectives, Metrics, or All of the Above?
When you read anything about success or productivity, you will undoubtedly come across goal setting. Goal setting seems to be the basis for both success and productivity. However, in the discussion on goal setting we don’t seem to realize that there are different concepts that people are referring to when talking about goal setting. Some people interpret goals as long-term objectives, others as specific short-term objectives, and even others as metrics.
We will see here the differences and why it is important for you to set all kinds of these goals.
1. Different Kinds of Goals
Imagine you enter a room with 10 people and ask them to make a list of 10 goals. You will get 100 different goals. In that long list you will see many different kinds of goals. So you understand that different people have different concepts of goals.
On the one hand, you will find goals like these:
● Be happy
● Have a strong spiritual connection with God
● Make as many different experiences as possible
These goals are long term objectives, also called mission goals.
Then you will also have goals like these:
● Buy a condominium
● Get a promotion to a managerial position
● Finish an MBA
These goals are medium term objectives that derive from the mission goals. They are often called project goals.
And you will also have goals like these:
● Finish the English homework
● Go to the annual shareholder meeting
● Design the website
These goals are specific short term goals that are also often called tasks.
And finally you will get goals like these:
● Have a heartbeat below 60 beats per minute
● Run a mountain in less than 5 minutes
● Sell products of at least 200,000 USD next month
These goals measure a certain performance or a state, are very specific and can be measured. Therefore, we can also call them metrics or metric goals.
2. Why Is it Important to Distinguish Between Different Kinds of Goals?
First of all because people get confused, as they understand different things by the word “goal”. Also, because the advice that people give for goals, make sense only when applied to the right kind of goal.
2.1. Miscommunication
When we say: “It is important to have clear goals!” What do we actually mean? Do we mean that it is important to measure metrics? Or do we mean that it is important to have a clear life mission? Or is it important to have a daily task list?
Any interpretation is possible, as the word “goal” can mean different things.
2.2. SMART Goals
You probably have heard of the advice that goals need to be SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound. This advice makes perfect sense… for a metric goal.
A metric goal could be “run a mile in 5 minutes”. This is by definition specific and measurable and it should be time oriented. For example, “run a mile in 5 minutes within the next 6 months”. Also, it should be realistic and achievable.
So it is true that metric goals have to be SMART. But it doesn’t make sense for long-term objectives.
A long-term objective could be “be happy” or “help the world”. These goals are very broad on purpose, so by definition they are not specific and are not measurable.
2.3. Frequency of goal setting
Some people say we should set goals every week, others say we should set them every month and still others say we should set them once a year.
All of the above opinions could be correct, it all depends on which kind of goals were talking about:
● Long term goals like your overarching mission goals should be set once in a lifetime and rarely adjusted.
● On the other hand, very short term goals like your daily list of tasks to be accomplished you must establish daily.
● And intermediate levels like, for example, project objectives in the medium term, you should review them once a month.
So the advice on goal setting frequency needs to take into account what kind of goal we are talking about.
2.4. No goal setting
Some people advise that you should not set goals, arguing that goals unnecessarily cause stress. This might actually be true in case we are talking about metric goals, like “run a mile in 5 minutes”.
Metric goals might have the effect that you are putting too much pressure on yourself instead of enjoying the process of improvement. So it might be better not to have metric goals.
The advice might also be true for bucket list goals. Bucket lists goals are things you want to complete before your life ends. They often are things like:
“Go on the Eiffel tower in Paris”.
“Swim in the Red Sea”.
“Shake the hand of a US President”.
These kinds of goals are dreams that do not really lead to happiness and have no real connection to the ultimate mission goals. So it might be better not to have bucket list goals.
But if goals are interpreted to mean objectives, then you do need them. Everyone needs objectives! And it is very important that everyone makes them clear.
By default everybody already has objectives. So setting objective goals is not about getting them but clarifying what you really want, in order to get clarity! That kind of goal setting is essential.
So goal setting almost always makes sense, but with some kinds of goals there could be disadvantages which might mean it is better not to set these kinds of goals.
3. The Importance of Each Goal Type
3.1. Objective goals
As we saw above, objective goals can have different levels, with the difference in time frame and in the level of specificity. We can illustrate the different levels with a Goal Pyramid.
The lower levels are very specific, and are often actionable tasks. The higher levels are very general and can be called mission or vision goals.
We should have longer term overarching directions that are not very specific. These are long term missions of life. Examples of this are: being happy, living a lot of experiences, being healthy or having a family.
We also should have short term goals as low as actionable tasks. These give us a clear direction on what to work on next.
3.2. Metric goals
And then we have metrics, or metric goals. Metrics as we said are goals that are SMART. Generally, we have metric goals in two cases:
● Measuring our performance
● Measuring our status, especially physical fitness
Examples of metrics are:
● How much money are we earning
● How many goals we are scoring as a soccer player
● How fast we run in a 100 meters
● How much weight we weigh
● How much body fat we have.
Metric goals don’t define the direction in which we should focus our efforts but instead they tell us how much of something is enough.
So they are answering the question: How much?
So the different kinds of goals answer 3 types of questions:
● Long term mission goals: Why? Why do I want to do all the things I am doing?
● Short term specific goals: What? What should I work on next?
● Metric goals: How much? How much body fat am I allowed to have?
In conclusion all the different types of goals have their purpose. So we should be setting all these goals:
● Metrical goals
● Long term objective goals
● Medium term objective goals
● Short term objective goals
