Who Is Doing Your Goal Setting?

Goals are really important, so chose them wisely.  Make them yours and find a way to measure success no matter how small.  If you have many goals, chose the one you are totally passionate about.  The formula for success is very simple.  Thought becomes a feeling and a feeling becomes an action and an action produces results.  Sounds simple but we usually get stuck in the action part.  For total success, you must spend time thinking about your goal everyday.  If you do this you can’t help but feel an emotion.  See yourself there.  See yourself successful but most importantly, take action even if it’s only a few minutes a day.  Always work towards that goal. For example, if you want to write a book and you don’t have a lot of time, write a page everyday.  Before you know it you’ve written your book.

Do goals work?  Yes they do, even if they are not yours.  Let me give you an example.  When I was at a maritime school, the mission of the school, besides giving me a good education, was for me to become a Captain.  In four years at the academy I can’t tell you how many times they prefaced everything as if I was already a Captain.  In my mind and the school’s I was already a maritime Captain.

So be careful choosing your goals.  Make sure the goal is not your parents’ or somebody else’s.   So did I become Captain?  Yes, and in record time.  I used the about formula everyday for eight years and became one of the youngest Captains ever.  What I found when I was promoted to Captain was happiness and sadness.  I should have been ecstatic, jumping up and down. I had accomplished something that most mariners only dream about.  Why wasn’t I happy?  Well, after much thought I realized this was never my goal.   The maritime school had subconsciously chosen this for me.  I was never happy in the position as Captain although I did a very good job.  Choose your goals wisely; too many people are in jobs they hate.  Life is too short.

Just think what you could do if you set your own goals.

Why aren't you getting what you want? What is keeping you back? Most people don't know and haven't really thought it out. Most would say 'Gee, I'll have to think about that'. Hey, this is your life so don't settle on coming in second place. Are you really content to stay where you are? Why? 

So take a few minutes to think this out. If you could have one wish that would make you happy what would it be? Really think. Don't just say a cool million will solve my problems, because many wealthy people are rich but not happy. Many lotto winners think money will make them happy, but end up right back where they started - unhappy and broke. So money is not always the answer.

Believe in yourself. Know where you want to go. If you have your roadmap, whether it is spiritual or financial or health goals, you can measure your progress. It’s as simple as this: if I want to go from Seattle to Boston I take a map and plan my route. I can't drive it all in one day so I have to do it in segments. With any goal each small step will get you where you want to go if you take enough of them in the right direction. If I just jumped in the car and start driving and end up in San Francisco it’s not where I wanted to go. There is nothing different from planning this trip than planning your or my life. Okay, you probably should take a little longer than it takes to plan a road trip, but choose where you want to go in life. Don't let life just take you anywhere. Plan your trip. The choice is yours.

Goal Setting and Action

Peter McWilliams said, "If you're not actively involved in getting what you want, you don't really want it."  I love excuses as much as the next person, but I have to agree with McWilliams on this.

Pretending to Take Action

When I give lip service to something I say I want, I either plan to do something about it later, or I go through the motions without really participating.  I may spend an inordinate amount of time planning.  This is not to say that planning is bad, but there comes a time when planning is just procrastination.  How about going through the motions without really participating?  Have you ever washed your car just to keep people from writing rude notes in the dust?  How about the time you had a new car and spent ages washing, waxing and buffing your new baby?  We all know when we're putting in effort and when we're not, when we really care and when we don't.   

Time Doesn't Equal Results

The amount of time you spend isn't a good gauge of how effective your efforts are.  Cast your mind back to a time when you had a report due in school.  Did you have long periods of time when you just sat in front of a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen?  More time was spent checking the clock than actually creating the report. We've all been there. 

What Do You Really Want?

I can't tell you.  Sometimes it's hard for me to know what I really want.  Several years ago I finally joined the gym that Mike belonged to.  I'd been putting it off because I knew I wouldn't make the time for it.  Thinking that it would help get me going, I signed up for one of the workout programs they offered.  I figured that getting in shape and looking better in clothes would be good motivation. 

Nope.  That didn't work. 

A vacation in Acapulco was coming up in a few weeks.  Surely that would get me to be faithful and spend quality time at my workouts. 

Nope.  Any of you who work out know the difference between just showing up and really working out.  One produces results, the other spends time. 

Then, quite apart from the fitness club, I started taking dancing lessons and fell in love with the lindy hop. I wanted to dance, I wanted to dance well, and I wanted to enjoy it.  Back to the gym.  Forget the general workout program - I signed on for a personal trainer 3 times a week.  Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night would keep me from training.  Because I wanted to get slim?  Because I wanted to be fit for the sake of being fit?  No.  The majority of other lindy hop dancers were some 30 years younger than I was and I didn't want to be sitting on the sidelines while they were having fun.

So what do you really want?  Don't let others decide because that won't be enough motivation to keep you going.  Find out what really drives you to achieve a goal.  You'll find that along the way you'll achieve more goals than the one you set out to accomplish. 

Where Do Actions Without Goals Get You

How often have you felt that at the end of the day you’ve done a lot of work but you really don't feel that you've accomplished anything? 

The other day I was saying something about 'having all the oars in the water and pulling hard but I couldn't see where the boat was going'. I find myself in this situation way too many times. Beth said, "Well, maybe the boat’s got no rudder." The light bulb went on! Here's another example would be getting into your car and start driving. You’re making really good speed but you don’t know where you’re going. A simple map would change everything. 

These feelings of working but not accomplishing anything come up when you don’t know where you’re going. This rudder I mentioned is what we call the end goal. 

Focus is the heart of any project. If all the oars are pulling in the same direction and the rudder is steering, the results can be unbelievable. You knew I was going to bring this up. This is a great segue to the success pyramid; thoughts + feelings + actions= results. This formula works for individuals or companies.    With a company the formula works backwards and it should for us, too. It’s the project lead or boss’s job to visualize the end results and express it to the team so they can see what success looks like. From this the team works together and takes action in a specific direction. All the oars are in the water and you have a functional rudder.   When this works properly, at the end of the day you feel accomplished. You have good feelings and thoughts. You can see yourself or team progressing in the same direction and see measurable results. This creates momentum. If you know where you’re going, not only do you get there faster but you or your team are happier. 

Will you have to stop occasionally and re-focus? Of course. Just like a ship has to change course occasionally because of weather and tides. These are simple course corrections that are easily made because you know where you’re going. Your map of success starts with a simple focused formula. Take this algebraic formula and make it yours: 

What Is Your Goal Achieving Style?

Everyone has a different set of things that will get them moving and keep them on the path to achieving their goals.  If you don't know what pulls you or pushes you, you'll have a much more difficult time in getting to where you want to go.  Generally, people seem to fall into two groups.  Either they are goal oriented or process oriented.  This doesn't mean that the process people don't want to get to the result, it's just that they can really get into the flow of things on the way to reaching the end.

Mutt and Jeff on Goal Achieving

Mike and I are often at different ends of the spectrum when it comes to going for a goal.  Mike is a goal oriented guy.  He's also spurred on by competition and the word 'accountability'.  Even if it needs to be changed, Mike wants a due date on things and will post it on his computer.  

I don't care about competition but want to be good at something by my own standards.  A due date that I have to look at constantly gives me the pip.  But if I have a daily or weekly list of tasks to do that get me to my result, I am as happy and productive as can be. Mike focuses on the end goal and, while I acknowledge it, I'm definitely a process person.

What's Your Motivation - the Means or the End?

Neither way of doing things is better than the other.  The End Goal Person needs to go through processes to get there.  The Process Person needs the goal so the processes actually accomplish something.  What we need to do is acknowledge our strengths and use them.  And acknowledge our weak points and find a way to work with them or have someone else take up the slack in that area.

It doesn't really matter which camp you're in, so long as you wind up with the goal you have chosen.