We’re all familiar with goals, yes?
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve been exposed to a wide variety of goals since an early age.
To name a few, we have:
· “SMART” goals
· short term goals
· long term goals
· outcome goals
· process goals
You can set goals in any area of your life:
· career
· education
· health
· fitness
· family
· finance
· travel
Truly there is a smorgasbord of goals. If you’re like me, you’ve used different strategies throughout your life and set many, many goals.
Do you have a positive relationship with goals?
Have you achieved the results you’ve wanted from setting and attempting your goals?
If not, perhaps some of the ideas below will help.
First, a quick definition:
Goals are conscious desires we want in our lives which we don’t have right now such as a new job, a degree, a house, a partner, losing weight, winning an athletic event.
Goals are commonly framed as something we want to add to our lives rather than something we want to delete. Typically we want more of something, not less. If you do have a subtraction goal i.e. watch less TV, plan for what you’ll do instead of watching TV. Substituting a positive behavior in place of a less desirable behavior helps.
Whatever the size of your goal, I view all goals as having several major parts:
· labeling, naming, identification of your desire-“The Goal”
· establishing correct action steps to achieve your goal-“The Map”
· taking those action steps to get the result-“The Process”
What is your goal? Figuring out what you want and labeling a goal makes it understandable and more concrete. An unnamed goal easily stays a wish, something which may happen “some day”. Labeling a wish, creating proper action steps and taking those steps makes a wish a goal.
Establishing what actions to take creates a road map so you arrive at the result you want rather than arriving, say Mars?
Taking action steps to get a desired result is your process, your journey from Point A to Point B.
You move from where you are currently (Point A) to where you want to be (Point B), arriving (hopefully) at “The Goal”.
Some thoughts about creating your road map.
There’s a famous exchange between Alice and The Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”. Alice tells The Cheshire Cat she wants to get somewhere but doesn’t care exactly where. The Cheshire Cat cheekily replies that surely if she walks long enough, getting somewhere will happen.
In other words, if you don’t care where you’re going, any map will do.
You may not be able to create the entire map at the start, particularly if you’re attempting something you haven’t done before. That’s ok.
If you’ve identified your goal clearly, then you can create a map to point you in the right direction and get yourself moving.
On any journey, there are moments where you don’t know where you’re going.
Are you looking at the map upside down? Did you turn right when the map
showed left? Which fork should you take?
You’ll need to make difficult decisions, guesses even, to what’s the best next step. Sometimes you’ll guess correctly and sometimes not.
You may need to retrace your steps and take another path
Your map is a guide only. Don’t be wedded to your map if it’s not working for you. Other folks working towards the same goal will have different maps.
Perhaps their journey and experience can offer you an alternative way to arrive at your goal.
The best plans need constant adjustments. Give yourself permission to change your map. There are many ways to achieve your goal.
Next up, the importance of process and how change creates unintended consequences.
