2017 was the last time I set New Year’s Resolutions and I haven’t looked back! The reason is that I have been setting PACT goals. What are PACT goals you may be asking, this article will explain what it is and how PACT goals work.
Setting goals is easy but much harder to track how you are doing against those goals.
Many of us need to reinvent our relationship with Goal Setting.
SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely) never worked for me when setting long-term aspirational goals across my life.
I found them too limiting and restrictive.
It often became difficult to establish the habit needed to achieve the goal.
As James Clear, author of Atomic Habits shares, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Instead, through Ness Labs I learned to PACT goals which focus more on the output than the outcome.
PACT stands for:
- Purposeful: A meaningful-personal long-term goal.
- Actionable: Small actions you can take daily within your control.
- Continuous: The journey of continuous improvement becomes the focus.
- Trackable: Have you done it or not? how did it make you feel? etc
👉🏾 SMART version of a goal: “Get 1,000 subscribers in 30 weeks.”
👉🏾 PACT version of a goal: “Publish 3 blogs a week over the next 30 weeks.”
As you can see from the above, PACT goals are about direction over speed. SMART is focused on the end result, whereas PACT is about motivating the actions that hopefully get you to the (same) end result. PACT goals are all about habit forming.
The actionable part of PACT goals is very important because you want to ensure your goal is small enough that it is achievable through small actions completely consistently. The question to ask yourself is
“Is your goal and its activities actually achievable in terms of bandwidth vs motivation?”
I’ve been guilty of trying to do too much too fast (fitness and diet resolutions for example) and quickly finding it feels like a burden and burning out in terms of doing it. So the phrase “more is less” comes to mind when I think about goals. Make sure it is a pleasure and not a chore to do so you stay consistent and ensure its longevity.
I’ve created a digital journal in Notion for tracking my PACT goals across various areas of my life, available through joining my monthly membership.