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.
