To Goal or Not To Goal ...

I have not been much of a goal-setter through my life. I have just drifted along achieving what I could and reacting to the situations that came about. As a result, I have reached where I am today by just drifting there. I am the epitome of the saying “if you have no destination in mind, you will surely get there.”

And frankly I am not at all happy with the results I have achieved. The net worth is no where near what it should be for a person with my level of training and capabilities. 

But I am not alone. Studies from long ago have proven that even among the best and brightest, it is the ones who have a written set of goals they are working toward on a daily basis that far outstrip their classmates in their levels of success.

But that really doesn’t make me feel any better about it to know that I have company. After all, what I am striving to achieve is to be in the top 5%, to be the elite, not the normal and below.

There is a train of thought that says setting goals can be detrimental to you because we frequently don’t achieve our goals and this can be depressing. This certainly can be true, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that goals are not a useful tool. In fact it is probably more indicative of the fact that you are not properly setting and chasing your goals. 

An interesting facet of all personal development is that it is generally easier to “prove” that it doesn’t work because so many fail at it. I would submit, however, that it is really just the opposite, the achievements of the few prove that it can be done rather than the failure of the many proving that it is impractical. What one person can achieve, others can achieve as well, given the proper preparation and determination. It is the fact that the NY Yankees don’t win the World Series every year that proves that the dedicated can out achieve those that rest on their laurels because they have been there, done that. On the other hand, it is their continuing presence in the offseason that proves that innate ability does provide a boost in their quest for supremacy.

We as humans are goal oriented in our personal make-up but also goal aversive. It is an interesting mix but as is often the case in human nature, we reject the very things that will assist us the most and attract the things that are most destructive. 

Another approach I recently heard was to view goals more as a roadmap. The most important points are knowing where you are, where you want to end up, and when you want to be there. Determining the path is a matter of responding to the road conditions in between.

This is somewhat like my Garman that I use for loose navigation on longer trips. It actually measures great circle line of sight distance which is obviously different from the road distance. But it gives you an approximation of how far you have to go. It gives you information on what is between where you are and where you want to go which is obviously valuable when your spouse wants to go to the bathroom or eat dinner at some restaurant. The point is that you have a broad plan, you can monitor your progress and you can get information about obstacles that are coming up.
When my wife and I commuted, we sometimes would ride together and one time she said to me "you never take the same way twice." My response was "the conditions are always changing and they determine the way." I knew where I started from, I knew where I wanted to get to, and I knew I wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

Conditions are always changing and getting to where you intend to go may or may not be non-negotiable. The negotiability of the final destination determines our desire and willingness to achieve the goal or reach the destination.

Another facet of goal setting is to make sure there is some measurable quantification about the goal – a single object you want to purchase that defines an amount of money. Or it could be just a target amount of money you might require to meet your immediate needs. Most people want to be fuzzy because they really haven’t invested the time into the required definition of the goal they have in mind. 

The more specific we become, the easier it will be for the Universe to provide us with what we want. The classic personal development tasks all talk in some way about the requirement for specificity and there has not been a documented proof that they are incorrect. 

Taking the time to first come up with the goal, then develop the specifics that you can see, feel, touch, smell and hear. Go out and find the item you are desiring, take it for a test drive or use it in the store. Sense the feeling you will have in owning the item to further stimulate your daily envisioning. All of these will assist in allowing you to make the effort based on your passion to achieve the goal.

"Persist without exception" - Andy Andrews

Jeff - beyondnormal

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