I am going to start seeming to contradict goal setting doctrine. For right now, don’t worry about setting three- to five-year goals. I know, it seems like heresy. So what am I suggesting? Focus on the next ninety days. What one thing accomplished in the next three months would leave you substantially better off?
You see, 90 days or perhaps a season, we can get our heads around. Not designing 5-year goals which seem to always be five years out. So I will let you in on a secret. We strive for stuff and accomplishments to achieve a feeling. Not really the stuff at all. So let’s get back to accomplishing that one 90 day goal.
How would your life feel? Can you appreciate the difference for a moment? Now write it down, and step back into next week. What one action step for next week, or even better this week, can get you closer to that goal? Here is the fulcrum of successful goal setting. Stephen Covey in his life-changing book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” suggest most planners and by extension, much planning, overemphasize the daily plan. This tends to leave you focused on the urgent, not necessarily the important. As well, you often are focused on what others feel they need, and very little on what you need to have accomplished. And to top it all off, you are usually tired all the time. So focus on the weeks and the seasons, (the ninety-day plan) and let the calendar worry about itself.
So it is ninety days out, did you achieve your goal? Did you get so close that with what you now know, the accomplishment of that goal is all but guaranteed? Did you realize two months in that what you thought was terribly important now is not? That is fine also. As Jim Roan said, “The real benefit of goal setting is not what you get, but what you become!”
Give it a try and let me know what you found. Till we chat again,
Wayne
Recent Comments