Creating Goals or Building Castles In The Sky

That statement implies fanciful daydreaming - unrealistic, fantastic. And yet, when someone criticized Henry David Thoreau's many visions as "castles in the sky" he pointed out - "The sky is the place to build them. You must design your castles in the air first - only then should you can get to work on the foundations."

Creating goals is one of the things that the human animal does best. And goal-setting is probably the most powerful performance-enhancer available to you., Let me repeat - if you want higher performance out of yourself - at work, on your career, in your relationships, wherever - the process of setting goals for yourself is where it begins. It usually takes two people.

And, it's where your demons come out and get to work! Most goal-setting is like the old New Year's Resolution chestnut - started with the best intentions, and gone in a week or so. There are reasons why goal setting sometimes doesn't work. They usually are related to our demons - the secret reasons why we sometimes don't seem to act in our best interests. Let's have a look at a few of them.

Demon #1 - The unwritten. When asked about our goals, we'll smile, tap our head, and say "I've got it all up here." Because the most consistent practice around goal-setting is to leave them unwritten. This gives you the opportunity to modify the goal or even forget it completely if things don't immediately go right.

Demon #2 - The unspecific. How about the kind of goal that says - "I want to start a great new business." This goal is missing time information, and a definition of "great." Maybe you wouldn't be quite so vague - but wouldn't you want your goal to be sufficiently specific so that you'd know when you've achieved it?

Demon #3 - The Global. The global goal says something like "I want there to be more love on the planet." This is not a goal but a vision, admirable, but dream-like. You can create a goal which expresses all the good-will and earnestness within you, but if it doesn't have some nitty-gritty specifics, you're wasting your own time.

These three demons help us avoid giving ourselves nice, clear, unequivocal goals. Why? Many of us would rather not win than risk losing. And so, we often keep our goals unwritten, unspecific or global, because then no-one can make us wrong. There's a rule which says you can't have success without the opportunity for failure, and vice versa. Fuzzy goals let us evade failure, but in so doing, we neatly evade success!

One last example: Picture yourself riding a bicycle. Up hill, down dale, you're pedaling along. You're an expert and highly skilled at moving this bike along. And all without your hands on the handlebars!

What's really happening is this - you're working hard but you have only a vague view of your immediate destination. Your no-hands bicycling means that you have to spend a lot of effort keeping the bicycle balanced. And there's no long-term destiny possible if you're focusing instead on pedaling and not falling down.

There's a neat little mnemonic called S.M.A.R.T. You've probably seen it before. S.M.A.R.T. goals are:

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Action-oriented
R = Relevant
T = Time-based

If you tie your goal-setting to this acronym, you'll quickly see how specific your goals become.

Now I work as a business coach, and many of my clients often resist setting goals. Why? Because goals mean risk as well as reward. Goals mean new accomplishments, generated by that part of you not fully developed. Goals mean (drum-roll!!!) permanent change. They also may mean loss of comfort.

On the other hand, goals mean the possibility of changing unsatisfactory circumstances, relationships, jobs, careers, life-partners, etc. Goals allow you to escape from your past. Does that sound interesting?

Isn't it true that many people you know are repeating their past? That they make the same mistakes or live the same life, over and over again. Consider this - when you set yourself a goal, you are looking in the opposite direction - into the future. Things from your past which might drag you down are not part of your new goal or goals. They simply don't appear for you.

So stop right here [x]. Good. Write down something you'd like to have for yourself in the next year that you didn't have this year or last.. If more than one something pops up, keep writing.

If you're playing along fully (and I invite you to stop right now and write down something you'd like to accomplish in 3 or more months if you haven't already) you've probably made a couple of observations already - that thinking far ahead is interesting, and you wonder how, or if, you'll tackle the goal you just wrote down.

After you've written down your goal or goals, one more requirement. If you recall, when we started this article, we specified that it takes two people to make a goal. To make it work, share it with someone - a friend, a partner, a coach. That's a powerful assist in the process of making your goals real.

By the way - have a look at how strongly you may be resisting these suggestions! Only words, aren't they? But they seem to have a lot of power, don't they! They truly do. As you build more goals, you'll begin to see just how much power is there, waiting for you. - and it gets easier as you go along.


Creating Goals or Building Castles In The Sky - To learn more about this author, visit Craig Jennings's Website.

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