The Reversal Goal Setting Approach & Beyond

New Year is when you often find the Internet flooded with 'goal-setting approaches that work' or wisdom on 'changing your life with five simple things you can do today'. Among the usual suspects, such as the tried and tested 'a letter from your future self', 'building systems, not goals' and 'HBR's #1 Productivity Tool - Timeboxing ', one particular technique caught my attention: reverse goal setting.

On the surface, it is a simple four-step process often used to set up objectives at the workplace or in delivery teams to hit tight deadlines:

1. Define your goal (deadline/MVP)
2. Identify the milestones to achieve the goal
3. Work backwards to identify the actions needed and the timeline
4. Schedule the actions

Digging deeper, this simple technique is one of the most powerful yet often underutilised. There is much to explore about the mental model behind it and the tremendous power it could bring - a powerful way of thinking that is highly effective in many scenarios.

First, let's introduce mental visualisation (or mental rehearsal), a related technique that uses all our senses - to see, smell, taste, touch, and feel the success as if it were a real-life experience. The touch of the trophy, the audience's smile, the glistening sweat when you cross that finish line or the joy of turning over the last page of a book. These 'imaginations' can enhance our muscle memory and make us behave like our future successful selves at the present moment. It is an effective form of practice for success. Amy Cuddy's famous TED talk "Fake It Till You Become It" dives deep into its psychological aspects.

When we set personal or professional goals for the year, we often have vague intentions, such as keeping fit, eating healthy, spending more time with friends and family, or making more money. Next, we determine our actions: going to the gym twice a week, eating more vegetables, texting friends we have not been in touch with, working hard, and asking for a pay rise. This approach seems very logical, albeit with its goals not often attainable. Too many people abandon their New Year's resolutions before the end of February. Why? The problem is that we do not know what we are striving for because we don't have a vivid expectation of success, and we set up the actions based on our current state, not the future we are capable of or dreamed of. Worse, when the going gets tough, we return to our old ways of doing things.

Reverse goal-setting forces us to ask tough questions. What does being more healthy mean to us, and what do we do every day when we reach our healthy standards? What do we wear, eat, or feel about ourselves? Ultimately, we must paint a detailed picture of our future success to work backwards to determine the actions we need to take today. This approach automatically shifts how to get there to the end of the goal-setting, so it does not limit our initial crazy dream - the what. It permits us to set audacious goals without being influenced by the current limitations, which often spark creative approaches because otherwise, the goals may seem unattainable from where we are.

Audacious goals allow us to fit our core values into them more freely, establishing new identities and providing true motivation. For example, being healthy could be a goal for one's core value of living a happy life. If you associate living a happy life with going to the gym twice a week, you will likely see it as something you want instead of a drudge after a long day at work. If you see going to the gym as an arduous chore you only do to get fit, you are unlikely to stick to it and will likely stop once you are fit. Do you stop going to the gym then?

When we set detailed, imaginable goals that align with our identities and visions, we can quickly see how our future selves live their lives. If you want a different future, you cannot be doing the same thing as in the past or present. Any new goal comes with costs that you must be willing to pay. Keeping fit will cost you the pleasure of sweat treats; learning a new language means you will not have 3 hours to binge on Netflix every evening. Without a clear vision, it is no surprise that people often abandon their goals.

This technique can be applied to many scenarios, such as becoming a better innovator, designing better products, or even taking a gentle but effective approach to self-care and being present. It can increase resilience and preparedness, increasing one's chances of success.

To achieve long-term goals

Visualisation for me doesn't take in all the senses. You have to smell it. You have to hear it. You have to feel it. Everything.

-- Emily Cook

When the 12-year-old Novak Djokovic held a trophy and said, 'I am Novak Djokovic. I won Wimbledon!' it was not a light-hearted joke. That 'visual' rehearsal, alongside the hard work, propelled him to become one of the best tennis players ever.

To deal with unforeseen challenges

In addition to helping achieve goals, mental visualisation is widely used to handle unforeseen challenges to attain greatness.

Many elite athletes embrace this technique. Michael Phelps set a new world record while his swimming goggles were filled with water. How? When interviewed, he revealed, ''I would visualise the best and the worst-case scenarios, whether I get disqualified or my goggles fill with water ... I'm ready for anything.'' This level of mental preparedness is key to facing unlikely or unforeseen challenges and making the otherwise impossible happen.

In innovation and product design

Asking ‘what if’ is frequently used in innovation and product design. Knowing why you are after something sets the goal. For example, you want to make a left-hand writer-friendly pen or put humans on Mars. These clear goals drive meaningful, innovative ideas and technology advancement. You do not want to start with, ‘We want to allow people to listen to music on their smartwatches because it’s technically feasible." It will not give your product more features than competitors or create actual customer value. We have already seen too many products with features that offer no value to customers because the product owners started from what we can do today.

Sony is a famous example of setting audacious goals to drive innovation and product development. In the 1960s and 1970s, Sony set out to change the image of “Made in Japan” from shoddy to high-quality, which led to Sony becoming one of the best companies in the world.

For ordinary days

We can use this approach to make our ordinary days better.

Many people set their daily intentions, outlining how they wish their day to progress, how they want to feel, and who they aspire to be. However, these intentions rarely stick. When challenges arise, the intention is the first thing to disappear from the mind.

How about visualising it mentally to make it stick?

The connection you feel when calmly handling difficult conversations with kindness, the self-worth and self-care when interacting with others positively despite how they treat you,  or the texture of the food when savouring a healthy meal with your partner. Mentally rehearsing such feelings and behaviours can help us be present, face difficulties with grace and self-compassion, develop our resilience and preparedness for challenges, be happier, and improve ourselves daily.