Manage Your Vision With Goals

Around this time of year, in an effort to claw for attention and relevance, there is an assemblage of “gurus” preaching about how goals are too limiting, and only small people use them. It is common for people to mix definitions; one person’s strategy is another person’s tactic. Some treat objectives like vision statements, and some tear apart the cliché SMART goal system for cheap thrills. Regardless, this collection of pedantic bros considers the goal insignificant compared to the vision.

Insert eye roll here.

Your vision can be as grand or small as you’d like, but there’s no way you’ll achieve it without a goal. A goal is the management of your vision. A goal may not be as sexy as a vision, but it is essential. Why? Because you can’t plan for luck, and wishes don’t work.

Incidentally, if you are in a camp that believes wishing does work, I challenge you to keep a journal for 45 days and list all the things you ardently desire.

• On the 46th day, read your list and place an X next to the wishes that haven’t come true yet.
• Put a circle in front of any wishes that did come true without any effort on your part.
• Review your entire list again and place a checkmark before any wishes that could become true with some physical activity.
• Tally your results. If you primarily have circles, congratulations — wishing seems to work for you.

You will probably have many Xs. Don’t feel discouraged because you can turn items with a checkmark next to them into, wait for it, goals.

The goal isn’t the only tool available to you, though it is a crucial part of your success in any endeavor.

Wrong goal, wrong result.

Vague goal, vague result.

Small goals consistently achieved, trump grand visions not acted upon.

Ignore those who belittle your goals. You’re already bigger than them. Stop letting mediocrity disguised as effort get through with a shrug. Let’s assume you want your actions aligned with what you say you want to accomplish. A simple word to describe that is integrity. Let’s explore yours by reviewing your one great goal from last year.

• Pull your great goal out and look at it. You did write it down, right? As much as 70–80% of the people you know don’t write their goals down.
• Maybe you wrote your goal down once, but you misplaced it. One in five people do that, so you’re not alone. But writing a goal down once and losing it or forgetting about it isn’t exactly a stellar performance.
• Less than 10% of people write their goals and look at them daily. This is a good group to be in.
• Be honest, is this great goal a goal you came up with on your own or was it suggested, perhaps demanded, by a boss, a spouse, or a parent? If it was, it’s not really your goal. You need to create a goal that’s yours.
• Is it vague? “I want to lose weight, make more money, fall in love, go to college, buy a car, buy a house, start a new business,” blah, blah, blah. You and millions, yes millions, of other people want these things. Sure, the ambition is great, but not in this diluted form. You don’t want to lose weight; you want to fit into a specific pair of jeans. You don’t want to go to just any college; you have one in mind, with a concentration on a specific major. You have intrinsic criteria for your goals, so make sure you write them into your goals. Vague goals get vague results.
• Is your goal exciting? When you read it, do you want to drop what you’re doing and go work on it? If it doesn’t create that level of excitement, why are you bothering with it? Because you should or have to? That sounds like an obligation, not a goal.
• Can you measure it? You probably can, but you don’t have any instrument to measure it correctly. Everything’s measurable but make sure it makes sense. Most people don’t care how much a football field weighs, but the proper length of one is crucial.
• Is your goal unattainable? Not to be a killjoy, but many people write their goals like letters to Santa. They want to be a millionaire instantly. They want to be talented in something they’ve spent no time studying or practicing. They want something beyond their sphere of influence, like having fewer home games rained out or setting a desirable stock price. If your goal is unattainable, it’s gonna be miserable for you.
• Is your goal relevant to anything else you’re doing? Sometimes people create wild goals that have nothing to do with their values, personal mission, or anything else. New is great, but irrelevance is a distraction.
• Do you have a deadline? People get confused between wishes and goals. A goal has a realistic deadline. Sometimes you’ll find you need a longer timeframe or a smaller goal. Creating small tasks that support your bigger goal is a great way to build consistent action to get you where you need to go.
• Do you have too many goals? In the beginning, we talked about those who don’t have any goals. More frustrating than that is having too many goals. This splits your concentration. It doesn’t mean you should put your life on hold, but you must prioritize your list. Narrow it down to the top three, and have one great goal. Ideally, the achievement of each of these goals helps you along in achieving the others. They’ll either aid in their accomplishment or make them irrelevant.
• Are you changing your behavior? If your goal isn’t forcing you to modify or change your behavior, you’re probably not going to achieve it. If you could accomplish it without changing something, you would have already achieved it, and all this would be moot. A goal should stretch your capabilities, excite you and make you use parts of your brain or body that you’ve not been using.
• Do you have a celebration planned? With all the changes in behavior and exertion of effort it takes to achieve the big goals in your life, you need to cap them off with a celebration. There is a lot of evidence that intrinsic motivation, although superior and more effective than extrinsic motivation, is fragile and can be easily destroyed by rewards or punishment. This is one reason why transactional leaders are so insidious to an organization. For many people, achieving the goal is celebration enough, but it’s good to recognize the little milestones along the way. You don’t have to organize a parade, but perhaps indulge in a box of chocolates, a dinner out, a day off, or whatever feels like a reward for yourself. Make it small enough not to throw you off track but big enough to feel excited and justified in your progress.

If you are still happy with your goal, good for you. I’m excited about the success you’re experiencing. If you see things you need to tweak with your goal to make it stronger, do that now so you can manage better, lead well, and become a confident, competent leader in your field.

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