0 - 500 / Goal Achievement Steps / Seneca

9 Effective Steps to Creating a Successful Goal-Setting Framework [Seneca]

By Effluo | Published January 31, 2023 | No Comments

Have you ever set a goal only to give up halfway through it? 

Did you ever get frustrated with the lack of progress toward your goal achievement?

If so, then read on to learn the secrets to goal achievement from one of the greatest historical figures, Seneca.

To be successful in goal achievement, it is important to have an effective goal-setting framework.  The difference between a goal and a framework is that framework outlines the steps you need to achieve goals in general, not just a specific goal.  Therefore, a successful goal-setting framework allows you to successfully achieve your results with the least amount of resistance possible.

There are many different theories on ‘the right way’ to achieve goals.  At Effluo, we choose to look at the proven theories of what has worked in the past and incorporate these into our framework.  We study the lives and works of great historical figures to understand what made them successful.  We then incorporate the learned strategies into our framework.

Who Was Seneca?

Seneca lived between 4 BCE and 65 CE and was a man of outstanding achievements.  He was a Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and he ruled Rome as a proxy ruler between 54 and 62 AD. 

He is remembered today through his written works, specifically Letters From A Stoic, through which he made a lasting contribution to Stoicism.   Seneca remained very influential even after his death, influencing the lives of other great people such as Dante, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare.

At Effluo, we did an in-depth review of Letters From A Stoic and extracted passages and talking points related to creating a successful goal-setting framework.

 9 Effective Steps to Creating a Successful Goal-Setting Framework Overview

The in-depth review of Seneca’s writings revealed very actionable steps to goal achievement, which can be summarized into the steps of a goal-setting framework.

  1.          Define Your Purpose

  2.          Identify Your Strengths

  3.          Personalize Your Goal-Setting Approach

  4.          Begin With an End in Mind

  5.          Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

  6.          Keep Track of Your Time               

  7.          Prepare For The Unexpected

  8.          Do Not Procrastinate, Start

  9.          Celebrate Your Accomplishments

 1 Define Your Purpose

For man is a rational animal.  Man’s ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he was born.

Seneca

The first and most important step in the goal-setting framework is to define the purpose of each goal.  This is also called defining your “WHY”.  Determine ‘why’ you want to complete a specific goal and how it fits into your overall life mission and vision.

This should not be a daunting task.  Do not overthink it, and do not overcomplicate this.

Defining the ‘why’ will be easy if the goal aligns with your mission statement or overall life vision.

To define your mission statement, you can follow the following recommendation.  Think of how you would like to be remembered.  Imagine yourself at the end of your life and answer the following questions.

• How would you like to be remembered?
• What would you want your relationships to look like?
• Which accomplishments would you want to have achieved?
• What experiences would you want to have gained?
• What, if any, regrets would you want to avoid?

A clear sense of purpose will give you a clear direction and the critical focus needed for the desired results.  Lack of focus will lead to distractions and giving up.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

Effluo framework begins with helping you define your mission statement.   It asks the questions outlined and helps you determine what is important to you.  You will review your written down mission statement every quarter to ensure you still agree with it.

When you are ready to set goals, you will be asked to define the “why” behind each goal. 

If you are creating your own framework, you mustn’t overlook this step.  If you know your ‘why’ you will more likely persevere towards the goal completion.

2 Identify Your Strengths

And what is it that reason demands of him?  

Something very easy –

that he live in accordance with his own nature.

Seneca

Stoics believed that the best way to live out your life is to live in accordance with your nature.

You may ask, what does it mean to live in accordance with one’s nature? 

The answer is two-pronged. 

First – Intellectual Nature  

You have specific strengths, aka gifts, endowed to you at the time of birth and gained through your life experiences.  This is your intellectual nature.  Stay true to that. 

If you enjoy accounting, do not strive to become a comedian if that is not enjoyable.  Likewise, if making other people laugh is your passion, and you cannot stand spreadsheets, then it would make sense for you not to become an accountant.

Second – Physical Nature

You also have specific physical characteristics that will help you or hinder you in different life circumstances.

If you are an early riser, it is not a great idea to start working a night shift.  Likewise, if you are a night owl, you may want to pursue a career that allows just that.  

Therefore, living in accordance with your nature can be rephrased as living in harmony with your strengths.  Be aware of your weaknesses, but harness the power of your strength for maximum success.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

Effluo framework helps you identify your strengths and passions via the use of affirmations and a visualization board.  

You will write down the affirmations pointing out your strengths and review them as a daily reminder of living according with your nature.

You will also create a visualization board focusing on different life areas you will proactively choose to work on.  These will serve as a reminder on a daily basis of your personalized goals as you get busy with day-to-day tasks.

3 Personalize Your Goal-Setting Approach

The men who pioneered the old routes

are leaders, not our masters.  

Truth lies open to everyone.

Seneca

There is no one right way to set goals and achieve them.  When working on goal achievement and creating your goal-setting framework, remember that everything is open for interpretation.   Yes, people in the past achieved great things, but they did so on their own terms, not by blindly copying others.

The best way to approach goal setting is by utilizing a framework that allows you to be flexible in your approach.  Using rigid rules and guidelines, more often than not, hinder progress rather than improve it. 

Study the different approaches to goal creation and create your unique approach that will work for your schedule and current life situation. Therefore, for everything you study, make a point of internalizing it and making it unique to yourself and your personal journey.   Personalize your life to make it your own.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

Effluo framework helps you personalize your goals and approach via the use of visualization boards and interval planning.  

You will create personalized visualization boards related to the different areas of your life and will review your personalized visualization boards daily.  These will remind you of your personalized goals as you get busy with day-to-day tasks.

Using interval planning, you will decide what goals to pursue and adjust them as needed.   You will be able to review your goals every three weeks and adjust what you plan to work on.

4 Begin With an End in Mind

When a person is following a track,

there is an eventual end to it somewhere,

but with wandering at large,

there is no limit.

Seneca

When setting your framework, it is important to remember that your goals need a target end date and a clear definition of what you are trying to achieve.  Define what a completed goal looks like.  If you fail to do this, you will encounter something called scope creep.  You will work on a goal that will continually grow with time.  It will become a never-ending goal.

• Defining the completed goal will achieve the following:
• Remove any ambiguity about what you want to achieve.
• Help you visualize your completed goal.
• It will give you a destination point to aim at.
• Helps you set the scope of the goal.

Therefore, as soon as you decide on a goal to pursue, define what it will look like when it is completed and assign it to a time frame.  This will make the process of setting goals and creating a plan of action much more straightforward.

Example of Completion Criteria

Goal:

Learn Spanish over the next 12 months so I can converse with the locals when we travel abroad. 

Completion Criteria:

• Be able to ask for directions and order food in Spanish.
• Able to carry a basic conversation in Spanish.  
• Be able to read and understand basic traffic signs and menus in Spanish.

  By defining the completion criteria, you are also setting the scope for the goal.  You do not need to learn all the rules of grammar and correct punctuation in order to speak the language.  You need to learn common phrases and how to pronounce them. 

  At this point, you have made the goal very achievable.  By defining the completion criteria and due date, you are beginning with an end in mind.

So give up pointless, empty journeys, and whenever you want to know whether the desire aroused in you by something you are pursuing is natural or quite unseeing, ask yourself whether it is capable of coming to rest at any point

Seneca

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

There are different types of goals. 

• Long-term goals and short-term goals
• Smaller goals and more ambitious goals
• Personal goals and career goals 
• Business goals and individual goals

Regardless of the type, smart goal setting can help you develop well-defined goals.   Because ambiguous goals lead to failure.  

SMART stands for:

• S – specific goals
• M – measurable goals
• A – achievable goals
• R – realistic goals
• T – timebound goals

Effluo framework helps you set SMART Goals and define due dates and completion criteria.  It will ensure that the goals you are planning to pursue are truly your goals, will help you identify your ‘why’, and will define the completion criteria. 

Download a Free Goal Setting Worksheet as a sample of what you will receive by using the quarterly planner.  This goal-setting technique will help you set clear goals and propel you toward success.

5 Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

You shouldn’t attempt to absorb all you want to – just what you’ve room for;

simply adopt the right approach and you will end up with room for all you want.

Seneca

Planning for goal completion is extremely important, but at some point, the work needs to get done.  You will get busy with daily tasks and goal-related tasks.  Prioritizing the work related to the goal is the key to being successful.

Think through your day.  You are busy with a never-ending to-do list.  You are running around and doing multiple things at once.  Now, stop and think about which of those things is getting you closer to goal completion.

Prioritization helps you focus on the important things first.   You will still be busy, but you will be busy getting closer to achieving your goals. Everyone has twenty-four hours in a day; it is how you choose to spend those hours that makes a difference.

A successful goal-setting framework should place emphasis on the prioritization of tasks related to the goal.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

Effluo framework helps you prioritize your goals and your daily tasks.  

When you create a goal, you will be asked to break it down into high-level steps.  Once the high-level steps are created, you will prioritize them.

You will begin with the high-priority step and break it down into daily goals.   Prioritizing one to two daily goals per day.  Each day you will be one to two steps closer to goal completion.  You will still work on your other tasks, but you will prioritize your daily goals.

6 Keep Track of Your Time

Measure your life:

it just does not have room for so much.

Seneca

Everyone has twenty-four hours in a day; it is how you choose to use them is what that will set you apart.  Keeping track of your time will help you identify what you spend your time doing and make adjustments as necessary.

There are two ways to keep track of your time.

Plan Your Day Ahead Of Time

On an hourly calendar, either electronic or analog.  Proactively write down your plan for the day.  List any meetings you have scheduled.  Then look at your daily goals and tasks and fill in the hourly slots of when you plan to complete these tasks. 

This will help you approximate the amount of time you need for task completion.  It will also help you stay realistic about your expectations.  And, No, you cannot complete 36 hours of work in an 8-hour window.

Keep Track of Your Time as You Go

Another way to keep track of time is to write down what you are doing as you go.  Meaning if you just spent an hour on a task, write down the task on the hourly calendar.  Continue documenting your activities as you go   through the day.

At the end of the day, you will have an account of where your time went.  This is very useful if you are new to a project and are uncertain about the amount of time the specific task will take.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

Effluo framework planners include 24-hour time slots per each daily page.

This allows you to either plan your day ahead of time or keep track of your time as you go.  The best approach to keeping track of your time is the one that works for you.  If you find that planning ahead works wonders, go for it.  Likewise, if keeping track of your time as you go works best, then use that method.

You can also combine the two options by planning the day ahead and keeping track of what you are actually doing.  This will help you keep track of your time management habits.

Regardless of what method you select, remember time is a precious commodity.  Use it wisely.

7 Prepare For The Unexpected

We must see to it that nothing takes us by surprise.

Seneca

Stoics had practiced imagining worst-case scenarios and mentally preparing themselves to overcome these scenarios.  Seneca recommends planning ahead to see that nothing takes you by surprise.

Not everything can be anticipated, but there are a few things that you can absolutely anticipate and prepare for. 

Another great stoic, Marcus Aurelius, provided a great example.  He said that if he met a person that made him irritated, he was prepared for it.  He repeatedly told himself that he would meet people that would irritate him and would learn to accept them.  Marcus Aurelius further elaborated that not everyone had the opportunity to receive the education that he received or had the privilege of having the same life lessons as he did.  This allowed him to be kinder to the people around him.

Likewise, take a look at your day.  Do you anticipate standing in traffic?  Prepare for it mentally.  Do not be surprised when it happens.

If you want a man to keep his head when the crisis comes,

you must give him some training before it comes.

Seneca

The key takeaway is that by being prepared for the unexpected, you eliminate unnecessary stressors from your day.  Preparation eliminates the potential obstacles that may stand in the way of goal achievement.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

The Effluo framework allows for the planning of the unexpected in two different ways.  

First is by anticipating impediments to your goal achievement and allowing room to adjust the steps.   When you set out to plan a goal, you will break it down into daily goals.  At this point, at the beginning of the day, you can anticipate what can go wrong and adjust to them accordingly.

The second is by completing reflect and review section.   You complete the reflect and review section every three weeks.  In the reflect and review section, you focus on what went well, what did not go well, and what you should change going forward.   By reviewing the items that did not go well, you are able to make the changes to avoid these going forward.

Both are anticipating the crisis, and reviewing the issues will set you up for success.

8 Do Not Procrastinate, Start

While we are postponing,

life speeds by.

Seneca

Be careful that when you begin planning a goal, you do not spend too much time overthinking it.  Yes, as we just covered previously, it is important to prepare for the unexpected, but do not let that prevent you from moving ahead.  Just begin.

You will not know all of the potential problems you may run into, but do not allow that from beginning your journey.  Even when you set high-level milestones, be flexible with your approach.

When breaking the goal down into high-level steps, be sure to keep it high level.  You will have a chance to break it down further once you have more information as you get close to completing that step.

Do not procrastinate starting your goal for fear that something can go wrong.   Anything can happen in the future as it can happen today.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

The Effluo framework helps eliminate procrastination during the planning process.  Often people procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed or do not know how to begin.  By breaking big goals into achievable high-level steps, you will be setting yourself up for success.

By reviewing your progress and learning from your prior mistakes, you will be able to anticipate the potential crisis.

You will be prepared to successfully achieve your goals and anticipate any potential impediments on the way.

9 Celebrate Your Accomplishments

So continually remind yourself of the many things you have achieved.

Seneca

Last but not least, Seneca reminds us to review our achievements.  Celebrate your successes.  It is so easy to get pulled into the daily grind of completing the daily goals and tasks that we forget to look at the big picture of our progress.

Make a point to stop and review your progress on a regular basis.   Review everything you have completed, and take time to celebrate your achievements.

Effluo Goal-Setting Framework Application

The Effluo framework reminds you to take time and celebrate your accomplishments at two different times.  

At the end of every three weeks, you will write down a list of everything you achieved over the three weeks.  

Likewise, at the end of every three months, you will write down everything you achieved over the three-month period.

Having a list of achievements will help you focus on your accomplishments and will help you see how far you have come, and will give you a reason to celebrate.

How To Create a Successful Goal-Setting Framework Summary

To summarize, the right goal-setting framework is the one that will work for you.   Therefore, use the outlined parts as guidelines, not as hard and fast rules.  

1. Define Your Purpose
2. Identify Your Strengths
3. Personalize Your Goal Setting Approach
4. Begin With an End in Mind
5. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
6. Keep Track of Your Time
7. Prepare For The Unexpected
8. Do Not Procrastinate, Start
9. Celebrate Your Accomplishments       

Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there.

Seneca

Your growth is greater than your destination.

Latest posts