THow to Set Smart Goals With Stoicism

Setting Goals

To begin researching how to set smart goals, I did some research on setting goals and there is no doubt that setting goals is a technique used by the 1%. Statistic #1: 80% of people do not set goals. So, automatically, if you’re a goal setter, you’re probably in the top 20% of people when it come to success. Let’s keep going. Statistic #2: People with goals are 10x more likely to succeed. This is just more proof that goals are powerful. Let’s dive in deeper. Statistic #3: If you write your goals down, you’re 42% more likely to succeed. So, what we are seeing now is that you can improve your chances of successfully completing goals. What’s next? Statistic 4: 90% of people that set goals that are slightly challenging accomplished them. But wait, there’s one more. the most impressive statistic: only 8% of people ever achieve their goals.

So we can conclude that goal setting alone can make you more successful, but that there are ways to improve your chances of completing your goals. If you can learn how to set smart goals with stoicism, you’ll hopefully be in that 8% that completes their goals and putting you closer to being part of the 1% of the most successful people alive.

Alright, that’s enough statistics for today. If you want to see where I found these statistics, you can review 13 Goal Setting Statistics: Research Studies Facts & Findings

My point by showing you all of these statistics above is that setting goals is powerful. It literally makes you 10x more likely to succeed! If you can learn how to set smart goals with stoicism, you’ll be even more likely to accomplish great things. The thing with using stoicism to set goals is that you may go even farther than you thought was possible, and even if you don’t, you’ll still be successful and happy. Before jumping into how you should set goals, let’s quickly discuss some important Stoic principles that we will use to help us set goals.

Basic Stoic Principles That Help Us Set Goals

Stoicism is a life philosophy that people can use in their everyday life, and it covers a lot of different ideas. However, today I only want to focus on 2 concepts in stoicism that will help you set goals and achieve them. These concepts are very simple to understand, but once you start to use them, they are very powerful.

Concept #1: Focus on what you can control.
Concept #2: Don’t worry about what you cannot control.

These concepts may seem super simple, and they are. They are so simple, that most of you will automatically believe that you already do this. This problem is that most people, and maybe you included, do not do this. It’s not your fault, it’s just that you’ve never been taught this. The majority of people focus on what they cannot control. For example, think of some common new year resolutions: “I want to lose 25 pounds”, “I am going to make $X amount of money this year”, or “I am going to master the guitar”. These are all results that are out of your control. So, if all of these common goals are not in our control you’ll need to know how to set smart goals that you can control.

how to set smart goals that you can control

Well, what can you control? The only thing you can control is your conscious mind and your conscious behaviors. That’s it. You cannot control anything else. You cannot determine how fast you’ll be able to learn something. Your brain makes new neural connections at it’s own speed and you cannot control this. You cannot control how fast you’ll lose weight. Your body’s chemistry, muscle density, metabolism and other things will control how much weight you lose. You cannot determine How much money you’ll make. You cannot determine how quickly you’ll beat an addiction. The only thing you can control is your conscious thoughts and your conscious behaviors.

So, instead of focusing on things you cannot control by setting goals for things that you cannot control, it’s time to change our approach to goal setting. You need to set goals based on the things you can control – Your conscious thoughts and your conscious actions. By setting goals that you can control, you’ll be able to control if you reach your goals or not. With the stoic approach to goal setting, the only reason you would fail at reaching your goals is if you fail to control yourself. This may seem scary, but it’s a lot better than setting goals out of your control.

Setting Goals Within Your Control

Here are some examples where you can take an old goal and turn it into your new stoic goal.

Instead of trying to lose 25 pounds, you determine that you’ll exercise for 25 minutes daily on an exercise bike.
You want to learn a new language, but instead of saying that you’ll learn a new language this year, say that you’ll study the language for 15 minutes daily.
Instead of trying to make $1,000 investing in crypto this year, you determine that you’ll move $25 weekly to your investment account.
You want to make 2 sales today, but instead you set a smart goal of speaking to 5 new people per hour.

As a side note, there is nothing wrong with setting big goals, but you need to do it right. With big goals, you need to split them up into smaller, manageable size goals. If you set a massive goal, it will feel like it’s out of your control, and you’re probably right. Long term and big goals need to be broken into smaller goals that you can actually achieve. A baby does not set the goal of becoming a king, although they may want to be one in the future. A baby says that they need to master walking because becoming a president is impossible if they can’t walk. Likewise, a stoic may want to build up to 2,000 push ups daily, but he will need to start with 100 a day for a month because this is manageable.

Consistency – A Requirement of Stoic Virtue

The stoics taught that virtue was the route to living a good life and they focused on 4 virtues specifically. A stoic would need to understand and develop these virtues in their own life. Epictetus taught that these virtues were developed and improved through consistency. Consistency itself is not one of the 4 virtues that they focus on, rather it’s a requirement of a stoic to develop these virtues. Epictetus emphasized the importance of maintaining consistency in one’s thoughts, values, and actions, regardless of external circumstances. By cultivating a consistent mindset aligned with reason and virtue, individuals could find inner peace and live a life of moral integrity.

Consistency is not only a requirement to developing the stoic virtues, living a life of moral integrity, and to finding inner peace, consistency is also a requirement to accomplish goals. If you want to achieve a goal, and you are consistent, one of two things will happen. 1) You’ll achieve your goals eventually. 2) You’ll die. Now, most goals are achievable, and if you’re consistent, you’ll eventually reach your goals. It may take a long time, but you’ll eventually make it. Most people are inconsistent. 80% of new year resolutions are given up within 1 month according to ABC Columbia. If your goals are worth giving up after a single month, you need goals that you care about more.

Stoics taught about Purpose

Several of the big name teachers of the stoic philosophy believed in purpose. The consensus within stoicism is that each person has a specific role to play in the grand scheme of the universe and it is their duty to fulfill this purpose to the best of their ability. As such, it is important to understand what your purpose is. By aligning your actions with your purpose, you’ll contribute to the greater good.

Not only will you contribute to the greater good of the universe, but you’ll contribute to the greater good of your life. If you want to set goals and achieve them, you’ll need to set goals that align with your sense of purpose. When you feel a sense of purpose, you’ll be more likely to be motivated and maintain self discipline to maintain consistency until the goal has been reached. If you set a goal that has zero value to your life, you will fail quickly. So, it would be wise to contemplate your purpose before you set a goal. Try to help your goals and purpose align so that you’ll have a reason to stay consistent.

The Stoics encouraged individuals to reflect on their values, talents, and capabilities to identify their unique purpose. They emphasized the pursuit of wisdom, moral virtue, and the cultivation of character as central to one’s purpose in life. Stoic philosophers such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius emphasized the importance of living in harmony with nature, fulfilling one’s social responsibilities, and seeking to improve oneself and society through virtuous action.

By finding and embracing their purpose, Stoics believed individuals could find meaning, fulfillment, and a sense of direction in their lives. Purpose served as a guiding principle that informed their choices, actions, and attitudes.

Failing to Meet Your Original Goals

So, you originally wanted to lose 25 pounds, right? (Change this to any goal you may have set for yourself before.) If you’re a stoic goal setter, failing to meet this goal is not a big deal. You cannot control this. So instead you set your goal to do 100 push ups a day for a month, and you succeeded. You are successful. You are happy.

Surprise. Your goal was to lose 25 pounds by the end of the year, but you were stoic and decided to set a goal of 25 minutes of aerobic exercise daily. You ended up losing 40 pounds. This doesn’t matter, you can’t control it. You were only successful because you stayed consistent and reached your goal of 25 minutes of aerobic exercise daily.

When you’re stoic with your goals, your goals are in your control which makes them easier to do. You may be surprised with phenomenal results or poor results. Either way, you are successful and happy because you are only focusing on the activities that you can control.

Conclusion

In this article we answered the question: how to set smart goals with stoicism. If you want to become a successful person, you’ll drastically raise your chances of achieving this by setting goals in the right way. The right way refers to setting goals that are within your control instead of goals that are not in your control. Once you have a goal that is in your control, the only reason you would fail to reach that goal is if you fail to control yourself. You need to develop a strong sense of consistency. The stronger your purpose is for setting the goal, the more likely you’ll remain consistent. This is the stoic way to set smart goals.

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