Using macro and micro goals to progress faster.

“Set and write down your your goals,” says the random guru with bad and incomplete advice.

Earlier I wrote about having internal and external goals. And it’s valuable to see what type of goal you’re trying to achieve. But what’s also important is having a goal with it’s micro and macro goals that go along with it.

All goals should be written down in their micro and macro form to make them effective.

Many people get hung up on the micro goal and it keeps them from easily progressing. For example, if a customer service rep is stuck trying to figure out why the system isn’t processing a coupon and trying to get things to work, they’re stuck in a micro goal. But perhaps the macro goal is to get the free 1 day pass into the gym. And it’s easier for the rep to just look the other direction while the person walks into the gym. The real problem, the macro goal, has been solved.

It’s like that “can’t see the forest for the trees” cliche, but actually helpful now.

You may need to get a cake for a party, so your goal is to find the best flour possible for the cake. You may struggle with that, but if the macro goal is really just to have a cake, instead of searching for the perfect flour, maybe you just need to go to the store and buy a cake.

It’s easy to become bogged down in the micro goals, but when you’re struggling, it may be worth examining the idea that you can just figure out a different way to get what you want.

The micro goals are the steps in the recipe. The macro goal is the cake.

Are the goals you’re striving for, and/or struggling with, part of the real ultimate outcome that you want, or simply a step in the process that can be side stepped by doing things a little differently?