The New Year has just begun and article after article are sprouting up urging you to set your goals for the coming year. Sometimes they are disguised as ‘resolutions’, other times as ‘plans’ or ‘visions’ but in reality, they are all just goals.
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So you sit down and you think about your goals, maybe you even write down your goals. If you haven’t done that yet, do it now. Think about your goals, list them in your head or on paper. Put them in order of importance.
Here, let me share with you some of my resolutions and goals from previous years;
- Quit smoking/drinking/swearing
- Exercise more
- Lose Weight
- Be more positive
- Write 500 words a day
- Tell my wife I love her, every day
- Read a book a week
- Save more of my income
- Study harder
I could go on but I hope you are getting the idea. Some of these are possibly also the same resolutions/goals you have set for yourself. They are, after all, quite common goals which I have known many people set for themselves at this time of year.
Yet what do your goals say about you?
The chances are that your goals are saying that you are a bad person. If not a ‘bad’ person then almost certainly not a ‘good enough’ person. Your goals are highlighting areas of your life, your work or your personality which you want to change. You want to change them because you feel they are not good enough, or other people have told you are not good enough, or you believe other people will tell you they are not good enough.
Are you getting depressed yet? You should be. Every time we set our self a goal, we acknowledge that there is an area of our being in which we are lacking. In short, we are saying that we are ‘failing’ as a person.
Let me stop you there. This is not a good place to start
Rather than start from where you are. Have you considered starting from where you want to be or starting with who you want to be? In short, start with the outcome, the end product or the purpose.
The advantage in doing this is that you start from a positive place; you are starting with the ‘good’ end that you seek to achieve.
From here, you can break down the end product into various aspects, sub-areas or ‘projects’. Each of these aspects can be used to replace the ‘goals’ you have usually been setting yourself. You will notice that I say ‘replace’ your goals. Yes, that’s right; use these aspects or projects instead of setting goals.
The problem is that when you set yourself a ‘goal’, it narrows your focus onto that goal and can blind you to other areas of your life. So, say you want to quit smoking, rather than set yourself a goal to ‘quit smoking’, why not give yourself a project to improve your health? Within this health project, quitting smoking is a part, so to may be losing weight, doing more exercise, visiting a doctor etc… . By creating a personal project for your self, you open up the possibility of working on several aspects of your life, all at the same time and often interconnected.
As another example. A lot of people want to become more productive at work. Instead of setting one goal to, say, delegate more, handle each paper or email only once, or attend only meetings with an agenda, why not create a ‘productivity project’ which could incorporate each of these goals and more?
An advantage of creating ‘projects’ is that other people can have a role to play within them or even to share all or part of them. So, in the productivity project mentioned above, work colleagues or team members could also include their goals within this project. Obviously, they would be setting their own parameters and outcomes within the project. A joint project such as this enables you to support others in achieving their outcomes and vice-versa. It also allows other people to hold you to account in achieving your own desired outcomes.
So, in conclusion, rather than setting goals for yourself, goals you are unlikely to achieve or even follow. Why not start by identifying the desired outcome or end product for your self? See this as a positive point.
Once you’ve done that, break it down into different aspects, or projects. Within each project, identify sub-areas or desired outcomes. Then get down to working on these personal projects. If you can, invite others to share in your project and to help hold each other to account.
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