Discover how a clear and realistic strategy can lead you to success.
How we are going to achieve it?
Aligning Your Goals and Plans for Success.
This applies to both your personal and professional projects.
In today's article we will see:
- how to define your goals, and
- Build a system that maximises your chances of achieving your goals.
Note: These tips are inspired by the content shared by Ali Abdaal on productivity.
What separates us from our goal
Sometimes our goals and actions don't align.
That causes frustration as we see little progress in our aspirations.
Let's look at a useful technique for this type of situation:
It is known as the "GPS" technique":
- Goal,
- Plan, and
- System.
Let's review the key ideas of this approach below.
GPS Focus
The idea is to transform your goals into a practical and achievable process.
We achieve this in 3 steps.
Goal: Clearly Define Your Goal
Here the main thing is that: Your goals need a clear intention.
Ask yourself:
- Why I want to achieve this?
- What would I change in my life if I make it?
Plan: Create a Strategic Plan
The second part of this technique is: Have a plan that really supports your goal.
System: Implement a System That Keeps You Focused
This third component consists of: Staying focused on your goal over time.
Example: How to apply the GPS technique
At a conference, a young woman asked Ali a question.
Below we have the conversation with "Jane", to better illustrate the "GPS".
Jane: I'm having a hard time with my TikTok account. I've been making videos, but I don't see growth and that demotivates me. I see other girls my age going viral with a few videos, but I feel like I'm doing the same thing and not getting results. What happens?
Ali: Could you give me a little more context, please? What is your account about, how many followers do you have, and how often have you been uploading videos and for how long??
J: I've been making videos off and on, for about a year now, and I have 240 followers. I pretty much make the content I feel like, lifestyle stuff, fashion shopping, some "a day in the life of" videos, and others talking to the camera.
a: And what is the target audience?
J: Eh, I think girls about my age, maybe a little younger.
a: So, girls in their teens or starting their 20?
J: Yes!
a: Great. So what is the objective?
J: I just want to, you know, make the videos that I want to make, and I've been doing that, but it's not really working. The videos don't get many views and I see other girls making similar content and becoming popular.
a: I understand... But what is the objective? Is the goal to "make any video you want to make" or is it "grow your audience on TikTok"? Or is it something else?
J: Hey, I guess the goal is to grow my audience on TikTok.
a: Okay... and why is that the objective? What do you hope to get with more followers on TikTok that you don't have now??
J: Eh, I guess if I had more followers on TikTok I could monetise that and maybe quit my job... or something like that.
a: Great, then, would it be fair to say that your goal with TikTok is to grow your audience to the point of monetising and perhaps quitting your job?
J: Yes, I guess…
a: Great. So we have clarity in the objective. I recommend using the GPS technique. That is, Goal, Plan, System. What is the goal? Once you have that clear, what is the plan to reach that goal? And then, what is the system that will help you follow the plan? In this case, your goal is to grow your audience and make money from TikTok to the point of quitting your job. But it seems that the plan you're following is: 1. Post from time to time 2. Upload content that interests you personally 3. Wait for it to work
Now, how likely do you think that plan will lead you to the goal you have??
J: It doesn't seem very likely.
a: I agree. So, we have identified that the Plan that we are following is not really very likely to lead us to the Goal that we say we want. Does it make sense?
J: Yes…
a: I like this technique because it helps identify where the problem is. When you asked the question, it seemed like you were frustrated that you were posting videos on TikTok (inconsistently) but not seeing the growth you wanted. By dividing it into Goal and Plan (we haven't talked about System yet), we realised that there is a clear mismatch between the Goal and the Plan. And that means we can choose to change the Goal or change the Plan. But if we stick with a Plan that isn't really likely to get us to our Goal, that's a recipe for unhappiness. Tell me, is TikTok a hobby for you or is it a business?
J: Oh, it's definitely a hobby…
a: I imagined it, and here's the other problem I usually see with creators. Often, creators set Goals that are business goals – grow an audience, make money. That doesn't happen accidentally.
So they have business goals, but they really approach it as a hobby. Overall:
- A "business" is something that focuses on adding value to others and making money from that.
- A "hobby," on the other hand, is something that focuses on being fun for you as its main goal.
If you have a business goal but it's really just a hobby for you, you're unlikely to reach the goal, and you could get very frustrated as a result.
I, for example, enjoy playing the guitar and singing as a hobby. It's fun, I do it for myself, and every once in a while I upload videos to Instagram singing.
But if I had a goal of making enough money as a musician to quit my job, the plan I'm following (practising guitar once a month and uploading a video on Instagram every three months) has virtually zero chance of getting me to that goal.
If something is a hobby, it's totally fine to keep it as a hobby and not associate it with business goals (i.e., making a lot of money).
If you want to set business goals for yourself, you may want to change your plan. Because the plan you need to follow to make a living as a TikToker, musician, or YouTuber is very different from the plan you would follow if you just want to make videos or music as a hobby.
To use an even more extreme example, you might enjoy making coffee as a hobby. But that's very different from trying to make money by opening a coffee shop…
We have to make sure that our goals are:
- (a): something we really want, and
- (b): that we are willing to follow the plan necessary to achieve them.
J: But aren't there some people who become popular on TikTok accidentally? I know of some tiktokers who did it as a hobby and then became famous and were able to make a living from it.
a: It's a good point. It's definitely possible. That doesn't mean it's likely.
For every famous influencer, there are hundreds of thousands of girls who dance on TikTok in hopes of becoming famous.
Ideally, when it comes to our Productivity GPS, we don't want to make Plans that rely too much on Luck to reach the Finish Line.
The ideal is to follow a Plan that minimises the need for Luck to reach the Goal.
Having spent a lot of time with very successful creators, I can tell you that the "Oh, I just got into this, I just made videos in my room and all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, I became famous" – Mostly, it's just a façade.
Every creator I know who successfully makes a living from this thinks super strategically about their content and their platforms.
They don't just post what they feel, on an inconsistent schedule. They are astute business people with an eye for strategy and relentless execution over the years.
Of course, in the world of creators, it is convenient to appear less strategic than you really are, to maintain a sense of empathy with the audience.
Hence the proliferation of “Oh, I was just making videos in my room and then I don't know what happened haha and I started making millions”, which makes people think that this is normal. It's not really.
At that point, someone else asked another question.
Conclusion
In Ali's example, the young TikTok creator made sporadic posts, without a clear content strategy.
The recommendation is obvious: The plan needs to be aligned with the objective.
For network growth, consistency and relevance of topics are essential.
The key is to adjust your actions so that every step brings you closer to the goal.
In this case, the system could include a publication calendar, growth metrics, and most importantly, a constant review of results.
The idea is to sustain long-term progress and to make adjustments if necessary.
Final Thoughts
A great lesson that this example leaves us is that:
- Many of us pursue "business" goals (growth, monetisation, and monetisation).)
- with a "hobby" approach (inconsistent, no strategy).
It is important evaluate whether we are really willing to make the commitment that it takes to achieve our goals.
By applying "GPS", we can transform any project (personal or professional) into a clear route to success.
Question your goals, adjust your plan, and establish a system that allows you to move forward with confidence!