How to actually achieve your goals (new year’s resolutions)
Each year as I review my new year’s resolutions, I read this article by Rodney H. Brady. It is worth the 15 minute read and has some great insight into how to set goals and how to make a plan to achieve those goals.
A GOAL ORIENTED LIFE IS FAR MORE LIKELY TO LEAD TO SUCCESS THAN A LIFE THAT LEAVES SUCCESS TO CHANCE
By Rodney H. Brady
I trace my commitment to a goal-oriented life to the early autumn of 1950, soon after the beginning of my senior year at Jordan High School in Sandy, Utah. Being 17 years of age at the time, and in my 12th year of formal schooling, I had already been exposed to the concept of setting and achieving goals as I aimed toward achieving high grades in my schooling, as I planned each year my summer work, and as I set specific targets of achievements in my church and scouting activities. To that time, however, the goals I had set and worked toward achieving were short range, unstructured, and somewhat limited in their scope. Also, I had not committed any of my goals to writing. Rather, I had simply formulated these short-term goals in my mind, then worked to achieve them as my interest, time, and convenience allowed.
Then, on an October day in the autumn of 1950, at the conclusion of a class session on American Problems, the teacher, Mr. Phil F. Goldbranson, called me aside as I was leaving the classroom. Mr. Goldbranson and I already knew each other well, for in addition to teaching this course in American Problems, he also served as the coach for the high school interscholastic debate team, a team on which I had participated since my junior year in high school.
On the occasion referred above, Mr. Goldbranson, who was perhaps two or three inches shorter than I, placed his hand upon my shoulder, looked up at me with his twinkling, sensitive eyes, and said to me, “Rod, I want to specially commend you for your excellent responses in class today. I have been observing you closely during the past year and want you to know that I believe that you can accomplish anything you want to in life if you will but decide what it is you would like to achieve.”
Knowing the reputation that Mr. Goldbranson had among my fellow students throughout the high school as being a thoughtful, sensitive, and dedicated teacher, I sensed at the time that I was not the first student, nor the last student, to whom Mr. Goldbranson had challenged, or would challenge, with the world-moving, soul motivating words, “I believe that you can accomplish anything you want to in life if you will but decide what it is you would like to achieve”.
My response to Mr. Goldbranson that day was simple and direct. My words were approximately as follows. “I thank you Mr. Goldbranson for your confidence in me, but tell me, how can I best decide what it is I would like to achieve in my life?”
Mr. Goldbranson’s response to my question was equally as simple and direct as the question I posed to him. By the readiness of his answer I again sensed that I was not the first student to whom he issued the following challenge:
“Rod, if you are really serious about deciding what you would like to achieve in life, I suggest that you set aside 10 to 20 hours of private time during the next few weeks and carefully list all of those things you would like to do and accomplish during the next fifty years of your life. Don’t be afraid to list some achievements that seem to be almost impossible to you now. Don’t be afraid to let your imagination run free. Remember, most of your life is still ahead of you. You have not yet committed yourself to any particular profession, or educational program. You can decide now exactly what you want to make of yourself and in what ways you want to serve your fellow-beings and society”.
As I left Mr. Goldbranson’s classroom that day I hurried immediately to my next class, arriving just before the tardy bell. While seated at the back of the classroom that autumn day, I found it impossible to keep my mind focused on the subject at hand. Rather, my thoughts repeatedly reverted back to Mr. Goldbranson challenge. Therefore, rather than resist the inclination to start listing my life’s goals, I turned to a blank page in my loose leaf notebook and started to list some of my life’s goals as they came to my mind. By the end of the class period I had listed between 5 and 10 goals on a sheet of loose-leaf paper.
During the next two weeks I devoted essentially all of my spare time, including weekends, to the task of listing every interesting goal and every desirable achievement that came to my mind. On several evenings I worked late into the night at my desk in my downstairs room at our family home in deep thought evaluating, phrasing, and rephrasing each of the prospective achievements that came to my mind.
As my list of goals approached 100, it occurred to me that many of the prospective achievements on my list could be easily grouped into meaningful broad categories of objectives, thus I recopied my list under the following eight headings:
1. Spiritual Goals
2. Family Goals
3. Professional Goals
4. Educational Goals
5. Financial Goals
6. Cultural and Creative Goals
7. Athletic and Physical Fitness Goals
8. Miscellaneous Goals
As I re-listed my goals under these eight broad headings, not only did that exercise trigger in my mind additional goals which were of interest to me, but by grouping related goals under these eight headings, conflicting and duplicative goals were easily recognized, causing me to revise and even eliminate some of the goals listed in my first draft.
Finally, after having spent approximately the 10 to 20 hours suggested by Mr. Goldbranson, I recopied onto a final listing the 150 goals I concluded I wanted to try to achieve over the next fifty years of my life. After completing this list of goals I could hardly wait for the next day to arrive when I could share my list with Mr. Goldbranson.
I made a special effort to arrive at Mr. Goldbranson classroom a few minutes early the day after I had completed my goal list. As I arrived, Mr. Goldbranson was seated at his desk at the front of the classroom studying some papers. After begging his pardon for my interruption, I proudly laid before him my 30 page list of 150 goals. At first he seemed confused, almost as though he had forgotten our conversation of several weeks before. Soon his confusion turned to amazement as he thumbed through my list, his reaction being almost as though I was the first of his students to take his challenge seriously and follow through so thoroughly on his counsel.
Soon after the classroom started to fill with my classmates, so Mr. Goldbranson indicated that he would study my list while the class members were engaged in a study exercise during the class period and that he would discuss with me his thoughts after the class period was concluded.
As I stepped up to Mr. Goldbranson’s desk at the conclusion of the class period that day, I detected a special look of pleasure and pride in his face. His first statement to me was, “Rod, I am truly amazed and impressed. Though the length and thoroughness of your list of goals is indeed impressive, I am even more amazed at the scope and depth of your interests. However, though your list is indeed impressive, I feel that I must tell you that with this list, your task has only begun”.
For a moment I was somewhat surprised and confused, first hearing Mr. Goldbranson say that he was impressed with the “scope and depth” of my list, then saying that in some way it was incomplete and unfinished.
Mr. Goldbranson quickly cleared up my confusion as he indicated that: “It is not enough for one to simply set goals; one has to lay out a plan for reaching one’s goals. Therefore, I suggest that you embark upon a project even more ambitious than the one you have just completed. Rewrite each of the 150 listed goals at the top of separate sheets of paper. Then, I suggest that underneath each of these goals you list each of the actions you will have to perform, and each of the intermediate hurdles you will have to vault, in order to get from where you are now to where you want to be with respect to each goal.”
My response was, “But Mr. Goldbranson, how can I possibly figure out by myself all of the steps it will take to achieve each of these goals?”
After hearing this question, Mr. Goldbranson again placed his gentle hand upon my shoulder and said, “Never forget that I believe that you have the capability to succeed at anything you decide you really want to do, including this additional task”.
As I left Mr. Goldbranson’s classroom that day I recall being overwhelmed at the enormity of the task before me, so overwhelmed that I was very much tempted not to proceed further. However, as I gave further thought to Mr. Goldbranson’s challenge, I decided at least to make an attempt to itemize as best I could the steps necessary to accomplish each of the goals I had listed.
Over the next two months, as I could find time between studies, work, and social life, I devoted many hours to listing what I perceived to be the steps I would have to take in order to achieve my life goals. As I proceeded with this task I soon identified several of the previously listed goals that were in conflict with other listed goals, thus I decided to eliminate from my list some of the goals I had placed on my original list. At the same time, however, my mind was often triggered to consider some additional goals that were not included on the original list. In the end, this exercise resulted in an expansion of my list of goals from the original 150 to approximately 200.
I completed the second phase of my goal setting and planning exercise during the Christmas holidays of 1950. Though the resulting 200 sheets of paper were still in my own handwriting, I carefully organized them in the same eight goal categories I had used to organize my first list. I then inserted these 200 sheets of paper in two loose leaf binders.
On the first day of school in January of 1951, I presented these two loose leaf binders and their valuable contents to Mr. Goldbranson. Though he had been previously impressed as I had presented to him the first list two months before, he exhibited even more amazement as he thumbed through the new 200 pages. In fact, he was so impressed with this second effort that he asked if I would leave the two binders with him so that he could study them over the next few weeks with the hope that he might respond in some detail to their contents. I happily granted him permission to do so.
A couple of weeks after I had delivered the two loose leaf binders to Mr. Goldbranson, he asked me to meet with him during a lunch period in his classroom. As I arrived at his classroom he had the two loose leaf binders at his desk.. Before opening them, he said to me, “Rod, never in my experience as a teacher have I had student take with such seriousness as you have my suggestion that he or she should, at a young age, set goals and plans for his or her life. I have carefully read through the contents of your two loose leaf binders. I have purposely made no suggestions regarding the goals themselves, but I have taken the liberty to make notes in red pencil next to some of the immediate steps and actions you have identified as being necessary for you to achieve your goals. I suggest that you review my comments, then perhaps incorporate into your plans those that you think are relevant.”
I quickly responded to Mr. Goldbranson with the question, “What more would you suggest that I do”?
Mr. Goldbranson then responded with a statement that has become one of the guiding principles of my life. “Rod, it is not sufficient that we set goals and lay out plans, we must also commit ourselves to achieving our goals through working our plans”.
Within a week after receiving back from Mr. Goldbranson the two loose leaf binders and their marked-up contents, I carefully reviewed all of these documents, made some additional changes based on Mr. Goldbranson’s written comments, then prepared a final, clean copy of these documents.
Through the years since developing my original list of goals and plans, I have tried to set aside a day or two each year between then first of December and the end of January during which I (1) review thoroughly my then current goal structure, (2) identify those goals which have been achieved since my last review, (3) determine which goals are no longer relevant to my interests, (4) consider goalbs which are candidates for being added, (5) revise my goal structure in light of the above considerations, and (6) identify the goals on which I am going to concentrate during the next year.
As a result of my being introduced at an early age to the formal method of goal setting described above, I am absolutely convinced that I have achieved much in life that I could not, or would not, have achieved had I left these accomplishments to chance. What is more, I believe that many of the academic, professional, public service, and personal opportunities that have come my way have resulted through applying the principles of goal setting, plan development, and plan implementation first learned during my senior year in high school.
My commitment to, and application of, goal oriented principles was often reflected in my actions throughout my college years at the University of Utah, while serving a two year mission for the LDS Church in Great Britain as a young man, during my graduate work at Harvard, in my military service in the Air Force, and in my approach to courting my future wife, Mitzi. However, nowhere was my commitment to goal setting and planning more clearly documented than in my consulting work at Management System Corporation (MSC), headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Throughout my three years of full time management consulting work at MSC from 1962 to 1965 my primary professional activity focused on the development and implementation of management planning and control systems for many industrial, commercial, educational, and governmental clients. Perhaps the most fundamental and far reaching of these consulting engagements involved the development and implementation of the Performance Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT/COST) system my colleagues and I developed first for the Fleet Ballistic Missile Program (Polaris Missile and Nuclear Submarine Program) for the U. S. Navy. This PERT/COST system was subsequently expanded for implementation throughout the entire U. S. Department of Defense and its weapon system contractors, then introduced to the Governments of Canada and India, and ultimately utilized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in planning and controlling the Apollo Program designed to land men on the moon. Also, while at MSC I personally researched and wrote for the Secretary of Defense (Robert McNamara) a landmark study entitled A Study of Management Planning and Control Systems in which I documented and evaluated over 100 planning and control systems then being used to manage major, complex projects and programs.
As I wrote my doctoral dissertation at Harvard in 1965 and 1966, I applied these same planning and control techniques to a task for more limited in its scope. Then again while in a senior executive assignment at the Hughes Tool Company, Aircraft Division from 1966 to 1970, I implemented these same planning and control methodologies to the design, development, manufacture, and deployment of military and commercial helicopters and military electronic and ordinance equipment.
As I entered federal government service as Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management in the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1970, I initiated a major program to bring advanced planning and control systems to that huge domestic cabinet level Department that had proven successful in the Defense Department, NASA, and commercial enterprise. My successes, and challenges, in applying goal-oriented management principles to HEW are documented in an article I wrote for the Harvard Business Review in 1973 entitled “Management By Objectives in the Public Sector”.
Since my years of federal service, I’ve continued to apply these same planning and control principles (1) while serving in senior executive positions in the pharmaceutical distribution and the radio and television broadcasting business, (2) while presiding over a large undergraduate college, and (3) while serving on boards of directors of a number of commercial and public service organizations, in church leadership assignments, and in many personal and family activities.
For more than four decades I have observed literally thousands of successful and unsuccessful people, some of whom have achieved extraordinary levels of success far beyond that which they and others thought possible, and some of whom have seemed to fall far short of their real potential. Based on these observations, I am absolutely convinced that almost every person living can benefit from a formal system of personal goal setting and life planning.
While serving as the President of Weber State College, a 12,000 student undergraduate college in a Ogden, Utah, I composed a list of 16 principles which I believe, if applied by college students, can substantially expand the effectiveness of their education and multiply their opportunities for success, happiness, and service in life. Heading that list of 16 principles is the following:
“I believe that a goal-oriented life is far more likely to lead to success than is a life that leaves success to chance”.
“I am convinced that, unfortunately, 95 percent or more of the people in this world are leaving success to chance.
To illustrate the above principle of goal orientation, I often have used the following analogy:
Suppose that a person is placed in a small boat out in the middle of the ocean and that the boat has a shelter and plenty of food and water. Also suppose that this boat has no power, no sail, no tiller, or rudder, no map or chart, and no compass. Then suppose that this craft, with its occupant, is cast adrift.
The direction and speed of the craft’s drift will be dependent entirely upon the winds, the waves, and the ocean currents. Under these circumstances, the location of the shore on which the boat lands, and the amount of time it will take for the boat to reach a shore, will be left wholly to chance. The shore on which the boat lands may be desirable or undesirable, friendly or unfriendly.
Now, contrast the situation just described with one where the boat that is cast adrift has not only shelter, food, and water for its occupant, but also has a map or chart, a compass, some form of power or sail, and a tiller of rudder. Then assume that the occupant of the boat selects a shore he or she desires to reach.
Under this latter circumstance, though there is no guarantee that the boat, and its goal-oriented and properly equipped occupant, will reach the desired shore, the chances of a safe and timely arrival at the desired destination are increased substantially in comparison to the drifting, directionless boat.
Once again, “I believe that a goal-oriented life is far more likely to lead to success than is a life that leaves success to chance”.
I have often been asked be people, young and old, if there are basic principles they should apply when setting and managing their life’s goals. Among the principles that I have applied and that I believe are most important are as listed below.
I believe that one’s life goals should be:
1. Worthwhile
2. Achievable
3. Ambitious
4. Measurable
5. Flexible
6. Structured
7. Prioritized
8. In writing
9. Private and Shared
10. Reviewed and updated regularly
11. Documented when achieved
1. GOALS SHOULD BE WORTHWHILE
One’s life goals should be significant in their scope and importance. Each goal should have value in and of itself and should be worth achieving. The accomplishment of each of one’s goals should hold promise of providing personal satisfaction and should stimulate one to strive for even greater accomplishments.
2. GOALS SHOULD BE ACHIEVABLE
The striving for goals that are absolutely impossible to achieve can often be discouraging and can interfere with the achievement of other important goals that are achievable. If a goal is in conflict with another goal, one or both of the goals should be altered so as to reflect an appropriate degree of realism.
3. GOALS SHOULD BE AMBITIOUS
Effective goals should stimulate one to stretch one’s skills, capabilities, energies, and commitments beyond where natural efforts would normally take a person. Few achievements are impossible if sufficient vision, imagination, commitment, and hard work are applied. More often than not, goals are set too low rather than too high.
4. GOALS SHOULD BE MEASURABLE
The most useful goals are those that are stated in such a way that progress toward their achievement can be measured and their ultimate accomplishment can be determined. The establishment of interim milestones and percentage of completion objectives are useful benchmarks against which progress can be measured. A helpful method in the planning for goal achievement is to start one’s planning with a statement of the end goal and then work backward from the end goal to the present and existing condition, identifying along the way events that must occur, activities that must be performed, time that must elapse, and resources that must be expended in order to achieve the end goal.
5. GOALS SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE
One should recognize that at the time one’s life goals are established a unique combination of circumstances exist, such as age, maturity, education level, perspective, proven abilities, health, family circumstances, resource availability, and interests. From time to time these conditions change. One’s goals and goal structure should be flexible enough to accommodate these changing conditions. Goals set at an age 20 and not achieved by age 40 of age 60 may or may not continue to be relevant, realistic, or of continuing interest. One should not burden one’s self with outdated and obsolete goals which one no longer has any interest or ability in achieving.
6. GOALS SHOULD BE STRUCTURED
When establishing one’s life goals, the formulation of categories of interest, and a logical structure around which one organizes his or her goals, can be very useful. A logical goal structure not only triggers one’s mind regarding areas of goals interest, but a properly developed goals structure can be helpful as one evaluates and plans the balance in one’s life and as one seeks to identify inconsistencies and conflicts among one’s goals. A logical goal structure also can be of assistance as one prioritizes goals and sets a time for their achievement.
7. GOALS SHOULD BE PRIORITIZED
One should recognize that all goals cannot be accomplished at the same time, nor can activities leading to the accomplishment of all of one’s goals be undertaken simultaneously. It is, therefore, important that one prioritize his or her goals in terms of their importance and the sequence in which one will strive to achieve each goal.
8. GOALS SHOULD BE IN WRITING
Goals that simply reside in one’s mind and are not reduced to writing are often goals that will never be achieved. By placing one’s goals on paper one automatically increases by orders of magnitude one’s commitment to their achievement. Goals not written down are seldom measured, almost always lack structure, usually go unprioritized, are not systematically reviewed and updated, and are easily forgotten. A goal left unwritten is a goal left uncommitted; a goal left uncommitted is goal left unachieved.
9. GOALS SHOULD BE PRIVATE AND SHARED
Some goals should be kept private; some goals should be shared. The setting of one’s life goals should be a very personal process, free from the undue influences of others. The mere possibility that all of one’s goals will be shared with others often causes one to exclude from one’s goals some ambitions and desires that are of greatest interest and of highest importance. On the other hand, many of one’s goals cannot be achieved in isolation from other people who will be affected by, and who will be needed to assist in, the achievement of certain goals. Thus, attention needs to be given to deciding which goals should be kept private and which goals should be shared with others.
10. GOALS SHOULD BE REVIEWED AND UPDATED REGULARLY
Once goals and plan are established and reduced to writing it is very important that they be reviewed and updated regularly and thoroughly, at least annually. Periodic review cements in one’s mind that which one has committed to accomplish. Periodic review also provides an opportunity to update, subtract from, and add to, one’s goal structure.
11. GOALS SHOULD BE DOCUMENTED WHEN ACHIEVED
The periodic review mentioned above is an ideal time to document progress toward, and the accomplishment of, goal achievements. Goals achieved but unrecognized and undocumented are goals where the ultimate simulative power and satisfying effect will have gone unfelt and unrealized.
Dr. Rodney H. Brady is currently President and CEO of Deseret Management Corporation, a holding company for the for-profit holdings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Prior to joining Deseret Management Corporation, Dr. Brady was President and CEO of Bonneville International Corporation, a broadcast media organization with both radio and television stations across the United States. Prior to joining Bonneville, he served as President of Weber State College in Ogden Utah. He is a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Through his service in local and national government, education, business and public service, he has established an honorable legacy as a versatile and energetic leader. In 1997 he was honored as the first inductee into the College of Science Hall of Fame at the University of Utah. Dr. Brady serves as an emeritus member of the Brigham Young University Marriott School’s National Advisory Council. He earned his BS and MBA from the University of Utah in 1957 and his DDA from Harvard University in 1966. He is on numerous boards and committees throughout the United States. He resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. He and his wife Mitzi have three sons who are following in their father’s footsteps by being very successful in their own lives.
