A Goal Setting Approach that Works
Are you tired of feeling slightly hopeless about the future? You have high ambitions for the life you’d like to live but can’t quite get a plan together for making those steps? Whether it is your career, personal finances, weight loss or school work, you don’t know the steps to be taken prior to achieving your goals and feel slightly stuck.
The Two-Prong Approach for Goal Setting that Works Every Time
You know what you want from yourself, life moves at lightning speed and before you know it, years have passed and you haven’t gotten around to doing all the things you said you would do. You know you are perfectly capable of achieving your goals but can’t quite get it right, finding yourself in a repetitive cycle and feeling more disheartened the longer time goes on.
Sometimes you feel stagnant in life and lack a plan so you attempt goal-setting as it promises you that much-needed change and achievement. Each new year you give it another go, setting your SMART goals, but can’t quite execute.
How do we set SMART goals effectively? How do we make goal-setting work for our individual circumstances?
The answer is Reverse Engineering. In short, reverse engineering is the process of breaking down a finished product to see how it works. For goal setting it is particularly powerful because it helps you identify the activities you need to complete in order to achieve the overall goal.
It is quite a powerful method for goal setting as it allows you to build an engineering mindset, which is repeatable in many areas of life, particularly problem-solving. It is applicable to jobs, business, fitness, finances and many other goal types. Reverse engineering adds an additional layer to the traditional goal-setting methodologies you’re probably familiar with.
This article will untangle the minefield that is the goal-setting industry and give you actionable steps to achieve your SMART goals.
Get Personal
The main stumbling block in goal setting is that we often look towards other people and try to replicate their methods of success. Whilst their methods may be effective, it is leaving out a crucial part: where you are starting.
I will illustrate the importance of this by sharing my own career-switching journey. When pivoting into the cybersecurity industry from the banking industry, I chose to be strategic when entering the industry by evaluating my current skillset and knowledge base. I lacked the foundational knowledge that many incoming cyber security analysts had, but I had risk management that I could leverage as a transferable skill, that incoming analysts probably didn’t have.
Note how if I disregarded my personal circumstances and blindly followed advice found online I would have lost out considerably and spent more time, and probably lost motivation along the way.
This leads me to the following set of questions:
- What do I actually want to achieve?
- Why does this goal matter to me personally?
- What resources, skills or advantages do I already have?
- What gaps or blockers are slowing me down?
- What timescale feels realistic for my circumstances?
- What route makes the most sense for where I am starting from?
The purpose of these questions is to get an understanding of what your goals mean to you, your timescales and most importantly your blockers. When looking at your blockers, visualise them as obstacles to be jumped rather than things that prevent you from achieving your goal at all.
For example, for me, a key blocker was my lack of networking or computer knowledge since I had not held an IT Helpdesk position for 3–5 years. I had a number of different options for overcoming this: getting a helpdesk position for 3–5 years or choosing the self-study route which had a steeper learning curve but could be achieved in a shorter period of time.
Identify Tasks that Lead to Goal Achievement
Now that you’re clear on what your goals are and you have personalised them to your personal circumstances, you’re now in a position to create a plan for achieving your goals with extra tasks included to counteract your blockers identified.
It’s super simple. You do not need any fancy journals or equipment as such. Simply a pen and paper or anything you want to capture the next step. Create a table with two columns, on the left overall goals and on the right tasks. It can be as many or as few as you like. But the point is to list the goals and then the mini-tasks that need to be completed to enable you to reach your goal.
At this point, you can start applying advanced techniques like SMART Goal setting to add some specificity and timescales. They are not necessary but might give you the extra push you need to start executing.
See below for examples of goals with tasks listed:
| Overall Goal | Tasks |
|---|---|
| Move from a banking job role to cyber security role |
Speak to recruiters to understand the type of roles
available in the market Enrol for an online course on computer networking Review CV to identify transferable skills |
Reverse-Engineer Your Dream Life: A Step-by-Step Blueprint
The same logic can be applied beyond an individual career goal. If you have a broader picture of the life you would like to create, the useful question is not simply “How do I get there?” It is to work backwards until the future outcome becomes a set of decisions and actions you can recognise in the present.
Define the outcome clearly
Describe the result you want in enough detail that you could recognise whether it had happened. Include a timeframe where that helps make the goal concrete.
Work backwards into milestones
Ask what would need to be true immediately before the final outcome, and then what would need to be true before that. These become your major milestones.
Identify the capabilities required
For each milestone, identify the skills, knowledge, relationships, resources, money or experience you would need in order to move forward.
Turn capabilities into executable tasks
Translate each requirement into something you can actually do: complete a course, contact someone, build a project, save a defined amount or research a decision.
Design around your blockers
Do not treat a blocker as proof that the goal is impossible. Treat it as information about what the plan must account for. Identify the obstacle and design a route around it.
Estimate time and sequence
Some tasks can happen in parallel and others depend on something happening first. Put the work into a sensible order and give yourself realistic time.
Schedule, measure and iterate
Start executing rather than endlessly perfecting the plan. Review what is working, what is taking longer than expected and what new information changes your route.
Practical exercise: Take one outcome you want and write it at the top of a page. Underneath it, write the three to five conditions that would probably have to exist immediately before you achieved it. Pick the closest condition and break that into tasks you could complete over the next one to two weeks.
Example: reverse engineering a financial goal
| Overall Goal | Possible Tasks |
|---|---|
| Save a £10,000 emergency fund in 12 months |
Calculate the monthly target Review current surplus cash flow Automate transfers after payday Identify expenses that can be reduced Identify additional income opportunities Review progress monthly |
Why the Method Works Better than Copying Someone Else’s Plan
Reverse engineering forces you to account for the starting point. Two people may want exactly the same outcome and still require completely different plans because their existing skills, finances, responsibilities, networks and blockers are different.
That is why somebody else’s successful routine can be useful as information without becoming the blueprint you must follow. The goal is to understand the mechanics of the outcome and then build a route that works from your own starting position.
Quick Summary
- Start with a clear description of the outcome rather than a vague intention.
- Work backwards from the outcome into milestones instead of trying to jump directly from today to the final result.
- Identify the skills, resources and conditions required for each milestone.
- Convert those requirements into small executable tasks.
- Treat blockers as design constraints that the plan needs to solve.
- Start executing, collect evidence and change the route as you learn.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does reverse engineering a goal mean?
It means starting with the finished outcome and working backwards to identify the milestones, requirements and actions that would need to happen before you could reach it.
Is reverse engineering different from SMART goals?
They can work together. Reverse engineering helps you work out the route and activities needed to reach the outcome. SMART goal setting can then help you make individual milestones or actions more specific and time-bound.
Can I use this method outside my career?
Yes. The same structure can be applied to areas such as finances, study, fitness, business and personal projects because it is fundamentally a problem-solving method.
What if I do not know all the steps yet?
You do not need to know the entire route before you begin. Reverse engineer as far as the evidence allows, identify the next sensible actions, execute them and use what you learn to improve the rest of the plan.
What should I do if a blocker makes the goal feel unrealistic?
Define the blocker precisely and ask what would reduce or remove it. Sometimes the answer is a new skill, additional time, a different route, more money or another person's expertise. The blocker becomes part of the plan rather than a reason to abandon it automatically.
This process is designed to allow you to get clarity on your goals and put you back in the driver’s seat of your life. Re-attempt goal setting, take particular attention to your personal circumstances and break it down into manageable chunks.
Reverse engineering your goals is your next step. SMART goals made simple. You’ve got this!
Read my other work
Long-form breakdowns, frameworks and practical insights on cyber security, identity and modern transformation.