How To Use A Goal Pyramid + Free Printable Template

After supporting hundreds of ADHD brains over the years, I’ve found that many of us love the idea of goal setting, but when it comes to mapping out that goal into an actionable plan, we start spinning. That’s where the power of the goals pyramid comes into play.

We might struggle with breaking down the steps and putting them in order (i.e., sequencing.)

Or we’re uncertain of how long each step takes, so we significantly underestimate how much time we need to get it done (hello, time blindness!)

Or we get stuck in our stories from past goal attempts, convincing ourselves that we’ve “never been good at goals; this time won’t be different.” (welcome to the party, all-or-nothing thinking!)

Here’s the deal; setting and pursuing goals can feel more challenging for an ADHD brain.

When we don’t have supportive frameworks to guide us through the process, it’s especially taxing on our executive functions. 

Luckily, that’s where the I’m Busy Being Awesome podcast comes in; in episode 186, we’re taking a deep dive into the process of setting goals through the lens of a goal pyramid.

You: A what?

Me: A goal pyramid 😍

It’s a powerful, actionable framework that helps us visualize our goal, break it down into manageable steps, and stay on track through the process. 

Yes, please!

So if you’re ready to take your big goal and break it down into actionable steps, I invite you to tune into episode 186 here. 

You can listen to the episode above or stream it on your favorite podcasting app here.   

Prefer to read? No problem! Keep scrolling for the entire podcast transcript. 

In This Episode, You Will Discover

• What a goal pyramid is 
• Why the goal pyramid framework is so impactful
• How to use a goal pyramid for your current goals

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Episode #186: How To Use A Goal Pyramid (Transcript) 

Hey, everybody. How are you? What’s happening in your neck of the woods? I’m really looking forward to today’s podcast because we’re diving headfirst into the topic of goal setting through an awesome visual approach that I think can be super supportive for our ADHD brains. 

Now, I know not everyone loves the topic of goal setting, and some of you may feel a bit squirmy or resistant when it comes up. But even if you don’t tend to think of yourself as a “goal person,” I encourage you to stick with me today.

I think you might enjoy this goal-setting framework for a couple of reasons. First, because of its visual approach, as I mentioned, and also because it does a great job of addressing both the big-picture why and our motivation behind the goal as well as the actionable steps to get you there. And we can do this all in one simple framework, which is the goal pyramid.

Why Explore Goals & A Goals Pyramid?

Well, despite many of us having mixed thoughts and feelings about setting goals generally, and even though many of us have not had supportive goal-setting frameworks with our past experiences setting goals, I still think the act of setting and reaching goals is really powerful. I think this is true for all brains, and especially ADHD brains.

Yes, goal setting can be more demanding for an ADHD brain because it taxes our executive functions to break down the steps and estimate the time and do these extra steps. But also, goal setting gives our brains tangible objectives to channel our energy and focus our attention.

We have a place where we can really dig in and explore what lights up – especially when we choose a goal that’s a full body yes rather than a “should” or an intellectual yes. Tune into episode 172 of the podcast if the concept of a full body yes is new or confusing to you.

The Benefits of Setting Goals

Setting realistic and manageable goals allows us to:

• Strengthen our goal-setting muscles because we get to practice breaking down the steps, prioritizing and sequencing them in order, and learning how long things take.
• Challenge ourselves to learn, try new things, and expand our capacity for growth.  
• Start shifting our stories around goals generally.

When we have supportive tools that help us through the process, and we pair those tools with positive self-talk, we quickly become people who both set and reach goals.

In other words, when we don’t beat ourselves up if we estimate the timeline incorrectly, or we don’t do something right the first time, and we instead celebrate the growth and wins along the way, we start realizing that we can do this.

It’s not all or nothing – that you’re good at goals or you’re not. Instead, it’s a process to embrace. When we can truly step into the belief that we’re either winning or we’re learning, that really changes the conversation around goals.

I like the goals pyramid approach specifically because:

• Its structure provides an increased sense of manageability.
• It helps our brains visually see both the big picture and the smaller steps we’ll take to create it. 
• It helps us better maintain our focus, monitor our progress, and continue generating motivation and commitment to sticking with it for the long run.

So today’s episode is going to be very action-oriented.

We’re going to explore:

• How the goal pyramid works
• The step-by-step process of how to use it
• How you can apply it to any of your current goals or projects

So I hope you have a notebook ready.

Additionally, I created a workbook that walks you step by step through this process. So if you want to put these concepts into action today you can access the goals pyramid workbook HERE.

What Is A Goals Pyramid?

A goal pyramid helps your break down and organize your goals into smaller, achievable steps.

A goals pyramid provides a roadmap and a visual to help you:

• Measure your progress
• Stay on track
• Reach the goal or complete the project
• Take away the intimidation factor because you have those clear action steps directing you each time you work on the project

You’re never left wondering, “I don’t know what to do next.”

Now if you think about the visual of a pyramid, you likely imagine a triangle with a larger base at the bottom.

• Thinking about that triangle, I encourage you to divide it horizontally into four layers. (Kind of like the food pyramid from the 90s.)
• At the top of the pyramid, we have the overall vision or ultimate end goal and why that goal is important to you;
• In the three remaining layers below that, we break down that end goal into smaller steps.

Those layers include long-term goals, followed by short-term goals, and then at the base of the pyramid (the bottom layer), we have daily habits or routines.

How To Use A Goals Pyramid

Each one of these layers in the goals pyramid is important, just as each brick in the pyramid is important.

We want to have clarity on all of the different goals to ensure we’re building the structure we want.

Underlying that, we can really set ourselves up for success by creating a solid base of habits or routines that help us keep moving forward as we reach these short-term and long-term goals.

So let’s talk about each one of these layers specifically.   

Goals Pyramid: Primary Goal

As I mentioned, at the top of your pyramid is your primary goal. This is the ultimate thing you wish to achieve, and it’s the thing we want to create clarity around when it comes to WHY we want to achieve it.

As we’ve talked about in many podcast episodes, when it comes to following through on our goals and our plans, having a clear why and reason to do the thing is so powerful for our brain.

Primary goal examples:

Depending on where you are in life right now you could have so many different goals. A few examples:

• To get a promotion at work
• Launch a new business
• Learn a new language and travel to that country for a month where you get to speak it
• Finding a partner
• Walking the Camino De Santiago in Spain
• I’m currently in the process of moving to Minnesota, so my primary goal is to live in Minnesota by the summer.

Your primary goal can really be anything you want it to be. Though again, I encourage you to check in and make sure it’s something that you genuinely want and it’s not something you think you “should” want or that someone else tells you that you should want.

It really is important for our brains to have that internal desire that gets us leaning in and willing to do the hard stuff. Otherwise, when the shiny newness of the goal wears off and you start facing some bigger obstacles, it’s much harder to stick with it.

When you know you genuinely want to do this thing, and you have a compelling reason why you want to do it, that’s especially powerful. It adds fuel to the fire.

How to Create Commitment When Setting A Goal

To create that clarity around why you want it, you can literally ask yourself, “why is this important to me?” Or “why do I want this?”

And then, continue asking yourself “why” in response to each answer.

Example:

“Why do I want to move to Minnesota?” Because that’s where my family is.

“Why do I want to move where my family is?”

Because I love them to pieces, and I want to be a part of the everyday moments. I want to be there for the Sunday brunches and the birthday parties. I want to be there for the concerts in the park and the campfires in the backyard, and my niece’s dance recitals.

“Why do I want to be there for those things?” I want to be there for those things because those everyday things matter to me. Those are the things that create connection.

“Why do you want connection?” Connection is one of my top values. It’s one of the values I want to lean into and let guide how I show up in my life.

When I can dig in and find that deeper reason why it provides such a compelling reason to keep moving forward even when things feel hard.

When I start feeling overwhelmed thinking about how I’m going to navigate moving all the things halfway across the country, I can stop my brain from slipping into the spin cycle a little bit quicker. And I can slow down and bring myself back to my plan- to my goal pyramid – and take the next small step forward.

Long-Term Goals

Once we know the top of the pyramid – our primary goal and why we want to reach it, we can move down to the next layer, which holds our long-term goals.

In order to identify these long-term goals, we want to look at your primary goal and think of a few big milestone markers that will help you get there.

Generally, people have around 2-3 long-term goals. Depending on the size of your primary goal, these items usually take several weeks or months to complete depending on the size of your primary goal.

Long-Term Goals Examples

If you’re working toward a promotion at work perhaps you have some long-term goals of meeting specific metrics in terms of qualifications or certifications, maybe you need to close deals with several key clients, and maybe you need to bring a certain amount of revenue into the firm. So you could get specific about those three goals and turn them into your long-term focus, which leads toward your ultimate goal of a promotion.

If you want to walk the Camino De Santiago in Spain, maybe you have one long-term goal of saving a certain amount of money. Maybe there’s one of actually planning out the logistics. And maybe there’s a training goal where you’re getting your steps in so you’re ready many days full of many hours of walking.

When I think about my goal of moving, I tend to think of three long-term goals…

1. Getting the house ready to sell
2. Selling this house and finding one in Minnesota
3. Packing and actually making the move

These are of course very large goals that need to get broken down, which we will do in the next stage. But when I think about long term goals that would lead me to ultimately living in a house in Minnesota, I need to do all three to get me there.

Short Term Goals

Once we get clarity on our long-term goals, then we can start breaking them down into our short-term goals, which make up our next layer.

Once you have your long-term goals identified, we can figure out how to break these down into more tangible objectives.

Keeping in mind that our long-term goals might take several weeks or months to complete, you might ask yourself:

• What can I accomplish in the next week or two that would move me closer to one of my long-term goals?
• Or, what are all the different steps I need to take to help me reach this one long-term goal?

You can list them all out as separate smaller goals that will lead you to your long-term goal.

Once you have all the short-term goals identified for long-term goal number one, then you can move to long-term goal number two and identify all the short-term goals for that.

Now, I’ll also mention here that these short-term goals might change as you continue progressing toward your primary goal.

In fact, both your short-term goals and your daily habits may have a fluidity to them, which allows you to update your objectives as you get closer to your primary goal. We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But first, I’ll give some examples of short-term goals.

Short-Term Goals Examples

If one of your long-term goals was getting a certification for your job promotion, maybe your short-term goals include the different classes or trainings you need to take that lead up to that certification.

As I mentioned, one of my long-term goals is getting the house ready to sell, and my short-term goals under this umbrella include individual goals for:

• Decluttering each room of the house
• Getting a couple of the rooms painted
• Doing the landscaping once the snow melts

So I have several individual short-term goals since each room makes up one goal.

Daily Habits of A Goals Pyramid

Then finally we get to our daily habits.

These daily habits or routines make up the foundation of our goal pyramid, and these are the things that we do on a regular or semi-regular basis to keep us moving forward on our short-term goals, which brings us to our long-term goals, which ultimately help us reach our primary goal.

Do you see how this visual keeps us moving forward and keeps us on track? One thing continually leads to the next.

When you think about your habits, I encourage you to consider your short-term goals and brainstorm the different actions you’ll want to take to help make those short-term goals happen.

What could you turn into a regular practice or routine or rhythm?

I use the term habit loosely here. I don’t think it needs to be a well-ingrained habit like you getting in the car and automatically reaching for your seat belt. But I do think there are ways we can start establishing simple routines.

As a throwback to last week’s episode one tiny step at a time-that helps us build momentum to check off our short-term goals. Ideally, these habits are small, specific, actionable steps that you can check off your list in a relatively short amount of time.

Daily Habits Example

If we think about preparing to walk for the Camino De Santiago, you may have a daily walking habit.

If you have savings goals to pay for the trip, perhaps one of your short-term goals is to make meals at home more often to save money.

When you then turn that into a weekly habit of preparing a few meals you can keep in the fridge and freezer ready to go.

Currently, I’m focused on my first long-term goal of getting the house ready. My current goal moves pretty sequentially, which isn’t always the case. Each week I’m dedicating a certain amount of time to decluttering and donating items that I can donate and recycling or tossing the things that I can’t.

Once I finish that stage, then I will move to the next steps that I have listed underneath the first primary goal of getting the house ready to move.

How To Use A Goals Pyramid: Final Thoughts

So that is the breakdown of setting a goal using the goal pyramid framework.

And with that, I invite you to think about any goal that’s on your mind right now.

What is something that you want to do or create or experience?

It could be a really large goal, or it could be a project that’s due for work in a couple of weeks.

You can really use this framework in many different places.

As I said, because this is a visual framework, it helps us break down the steps and identify what to prioritize, and because it allows us to measure and actually see our progress, it can be a really supportive tool for helping our ADHD brains stay committed.

Let’s Recap:

So as a quick recap…

1. Begin by identifying your primary goal. What is the thing that you really want to create, or experience, or do?
2. Make this goal specific. Use the SMART goals framework to help you make your goal specific. Here’s a free SMART goals template you can use to help with the process.
   • As a quick reminder, SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For example, I wouldn’t have a measurable goal if I just said, I want to move to Minnesota.

It becomes much more specific and measurable when I think to myself…

• I want to have sold my house in MA
• Found a house in MN
• Move into that house by June.

There is much less wiggle room here. My brain has a very clear direction, it can’t get confused.

We also have achievable.

• Is this actually achievable?
• Can I do this?

My brain kind of wants to doubt whether I can do all of this by June, but I do think it’s achievable.

Then we ask about relevance.

This ties back into finding our why- that full body yes.

Is this goal actually relevant to you?

Do you genuinely want to do it?

And then finally, making it time-bound.

When do you want to have it done by?

Give your brain that deadline so you can start breaking up the steps and figuring out when things need to happen in order to make that goal come to fruition.

Now with all of this, I want to offer a big asterisk by saying that timelines and specifics can shift. That’s OK. That is part of the process. Nothing’s gone wrong if something needs to change.

But when you give yourself the gift of a framework and a plan, making that change becomes much easier.

If you don’t have a plan or specifics, and you hit a bump in the road and need to make a pivot, it’s easy for the brain to think, everything’s gone wrong. Nothing’s working out. We might as well just quit.

But if you have a road map, and you hit a bump or a detour, we can look at that big picture map – we can zoom out-and then we can make a right turn and a left turn and drive around that detour and get right back on track. It’s not a problem. It might take a few extra minutes in our overall commute, but that’s not a problem period because we know where we’re going.

I would love to hear your thoughts…

What goal are you working toward right now?

What’s on your mind?

Feel free to pop over to Instagram and let me know. You can share it on the post for this podcast, or you can drop it in my DM. I’d love to hear from you.

Also, don’t forget to grab the workbook that goes along with this episode. Again, I walk you step by step through this process.