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Open Minds and Goal Setting

Written by: Allen Hatton

Article Overview: I was taught 25 years ago that a pure scientist has the most open of minds. The reason being quite simple in that unless you’ve conducted an experiment and developed proof one way or the other, how do you know it to be true or not. I was also informed by a scientist that I met on an airplane many moons ago that unless it gets funded it probably won’t be explored. But that’s another story.

Open Minds and Goal Setting

I was taught 25 years ago that a pure scientist has the most open of minds. The reason being quite simple in that unless you’ve conducted an experiment and developed proof one way or the other, how do you know it to be true or not. I was also informed by a scientist that I met on an airplane many moons ago that unless it gets funded it probably won’t be explored. But that’s another story.

As many of you know, I coach scientists and with rare exception I truly enjoy working with these folks. So what does this have to do with vision and goal setting. As you can imagine, as a CEO and as a trained executive coach I have studied and applied many times over the techniques of visioning and goal setting and still do. However, the most practical explanation of it’s value comes not from a business person, but from Helen Schucman, a deceased professor of medical psychology at The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Helen wrote along with fellow professor William Thetford, what I call higher consciousness thinking. What she wrote about goals was not in a medical journal, but in the famed “Course in Miracles”. I’m one of those people that needs reason attached to what I am learning. It doesn’t have to be pure science, it just has to make sense to me. Then I’ll be a true scientist and test it for myself. Helen Schucman makes sense to me.

What most leadership experts will confirm is the importance of creating a vision. What I try to get across to my clients is the importance of it throughout the organization. For example, you can develop departmental visions and missions in support of the corporate vision. And most importantly you can develop personal vision statements. Check this out and let me know what you think.

“ In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply is what do I want to come of this. What is it for? The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning. For it is this which will determine the outcome. Schucman refers to the opposite of goal setting as “ the situation becomes the determiner of the outcome, which can be anything”. When you do not know what you want to come of a situation, you are only aware of what you do not want, therefore having no positive goal at all.

“Without a clear cut, positive goal, set at the outset, the situation just seems to happen. Then you look back on it and try to piece together what it must have meant, and you will be wrong. No goal was set with which to bring the means in line. The absence of a criterion for outcome, set in advance, makes understanding doubtful and evaluation impossible. The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen. You will therefore make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of your objective and concentrate on everything that helps you meet it.

Now here comes the open mind part. What we’re looking at here is you creating your future. That’s nothing new, but the idea that Schucman sets forth is that what you want is already created once you set your mind to it. Now all you have to do is get there. That would be the taking action part. I don’t believe you can fake yourself out. So that requires you to believe in what you have created and that is what true positive thinking is all about.

There was a show on the television program 60 Minutes many years ago about a nineteen year old self made millionaire. The guy’s mother said when she walked into his room it was like entering some kind of force field. She said it was thick, like you could touch it. I think he must have been creating his ass off in there and of course taking the action steps to realize it.

So there you have it. Now go create something and hire me to help you get it done. And if you don’t feel ready to create it on your own, call me and we’ll do it together.

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