A fresh take on successfully striving towards what you really care about

How to Create a Goal Hierarchy

A fresh take on successfully striving towards what you really care about.

Introduction

Many people, especially in the fitness industry, like to look ahead over a period of time and set goals and aspirations for what they would like to achieve. New year's resolutions are a good example of this.

The research and most people's experience confirm that these resolutions usually result in short-term success followed by either a halt or reversal of the progress made.

Although this is often chalked up to a lack of motivation or resolve, more often than not, it is due to a lack of structure and support around your aspirations, or you are aiming at something that you think you should be doing rather than what is really important to you.

One tool that I use to navigate this is a Goal Hierarchy.

I will explain this below within the context of training, but your training Goal Hierarchy can and should fit within your wider life Goal Hierarchy, supporting your core life values and aspirations.

What is a Goal Hierarchy?

It is basically a flow chart where your Values and big picture 'Whys' are at the top, these are then supported by general category or area goals, Superordinate Goals, which are in turn supported by more specific Intermediate Goals, that are actioned through your day-to-day on 'on the ground' Subordinate Goals.   

VALUES AND ‘WHYS’

What do you really care about?

Meaningful progress is only made by consistently pursuing something over a long period of time, and this simply won't happen unless it is related to something that you actually care about, AND you can see and readily call upon that connection during the day-to-day of putting in the work. 

This is one reason why many people have a huge life overhaul after a health scare, it gives them a really big and clear ‘why’! But we shouldn't need things to get that drastic before being able to make productive changes in our lives. 

Superordinate Goals

They tie closely to your values and your whys.

They help to coordinate and provide more significant meaning and sustained motivation for the more specific, actionable goals.

Intermediate Goals

These are the categories or aspects that contribute to and lead to your superordinate goals.

These may support one or more of the Superordinate goals, and this provides you with multiple avenues for success. This means that although it may have been a messy week of training, if you managed your sleep well, then you still made progress towards a superordinate goal.

Subordinate Goals

These are the actionable goals that you can carry out.

Again, one or multiple of these may contribute to one or more of your intermediate goals. This level is also where you apply many other common goal-setting strategies, such as having plans to overcome potential barriers and having accountability.

Where do I start?

When constructing a Goal Hierarchy, you can work in both directions:  

You can start with your 'Whys' and follow the chain down to make a road map for how you are going to support and fulfil those.

You may find that you have Subordinate goals that you feel are important to you, but you have not yet articulated the underlying values of why they are important to you. You can work up the levels and link them to values, maybe uncovering values or beliefs that you may not have realised you held. 

If you find you have lower-level goals that aren't supported by or contribute to your values and beliefs, those probably aren't the goals for you, and most likely you won't follow through with them anyway.

Everything is connected

Our lives are seldom perfectly consistent, which is why having multiple avenues for success is so important. Within a Goal Hierarchy, values and upper-level goals can be supported by multiple lower-level goals, and conversely, lower-level goals can be working towards multiple upper-level goals and values. 

If the motivation to train during the week is lacking, for example, because all sporting competitions were cancelled due to a global pandemic (theoretically) you can recall that competing is not the only reason that you train and shift your primary motivation towards another one of your upper-level goals or values. 

These factors provide us with a versatile and flexible structure that is well supported by what we really care about!

Action Steps (Template)

You can do this in a document or on flow chart software (Here is a template for you), but I find good old pencil (some erasing may be required) and paper or post-it notes are the easiest way to do this.

First, I would create a list of goals. 

Don't worry too much right now about what category they fit into; just get down what comes to mind.

Now read through these goals and ask yourself for each one, why is this a goal for you? Why do you even care whether this happens or not? 

If an answer does not come easily, just move on to the next one.

“Because I just enjoy it” is a valid reason for a goal you have. Allowing time for doing things you enjoy could be a higher-level goal or value.

Sometimes the answer leads to another goal already in the list (the hierarchy is starting to construct itself). In this case, just move on to the next one.

Write all of these whys in bubbles at the top of your page (or arrange your post-it notes).

Go through your list of goals and ask yourself if you can physically carry out what is written. Example one cannot go and “manage their sleep”; this is a category that encompasses a range of activities.

All the ones that are physically actionable are your Subordinate Goals; put those at the bottom.

The rest are your Superordinate and Intermediate Goals. Superordinate goals will be the broader categories, and Intermediate Goals are the narrower categories. You will come across some that could go either way; just choose where they go, it doesn't really matter.

From here, it should be fairly obvious where to draw the connections.

If you find that there are lower-level goals that are not supporting anything or higher-level goals that are unsupported, try to fill in the gaps. Pretty soon, your Hierarchy should come together, and you can prune and tweak as needed.  

Other Useful Principles When Setting and Following Through With Goals

• Progress is made by doing most of the work most of the time over a long time, not by perfect adherence during January.

• You will almost certainly go off plan at some point. Don't be surprised; be kind to yourself, acknowledge it, review it and see if there are any changes you could make or added support you may need, especially if you are consistently coming across the same barrier.

• Reach out for support and external ideas sooner rather than later. Find someone you trust and respect and get their take on it. Often, there may be avenues that haven't occurred to you, or the added accountability may be enough to get you through, or you are doing well and just need the encouragement to keep going!

• Goals can change, and that's okay. Your internal or external circumstances may change, causing you to rethink or reprioritise. Go back to your Goals Hierarchy, adjust what needs to be adjusted and crack on!

• Aim for process goals (training 3 times a week for a period of time) rather than outcome goals (lifting Xkgs by X date). Outcome goals are nice as something to look forward to or milestones to pass, but they should not be your main focus

• Make sure your goals are achievable - can you realistically commit to the schedule you have laid out? You may only find this out after trying, that's okay, assess, adjust and keep going.

• Lastly, just keep swimming. You only fail when you stop. Even if you have fallen off for a while, get back up and keep moving forward

If you want help creating your Goal Hierarchy or reaching those goals, then check out my training community, the House of Strength,👉 HERE👈!