I love goals. I love having goals. I love talking to people about their goals. I love helping people and organization identify their goals. I love helping people and organizations achieve their goals.
And my approach to goals has changed over time.
I still believe that writing down our goals increases the chances of them happening. And now I also think it is important to keep track of them over time, so we can remind ourselves of our successes.
I still believe that most goals need to be broken down into steps. And now I know that we can’t always know all the steps before we start, but rather taking the first step will help us know what the second step might be.
I still think that it’s good to have a timeline for our goals. And now I also think we need to consider where the goal fits with other things in our lives and how the amount of time and energy we have to focus on achieving the goal is a key factor in determining the timeline.
I still think too many of our goals are habits we want to start and keep doing for the rest of our lives. And now I give myself permission to do these habit type goals for a period of time, celebrate, and then see what happens. Sometimes the world gets in the way of our well intended habits, and that’s not our fault, it’s just life.
I still say it’s good to define your measure of success. And now I realize we need to give more room and flexibility for the things we cannot control that might get in the way of achieving our pre-determined measure of success.
I still say that achieving goals is important. And now I also think that all progress is valuable, even if the goal is not fully achieved. I also believe that as we make progress towards a goal, sometimes we decide this goal is no longer for us, and it is okay to change our minds.
I still encourage people to share their goals with others as saying them out loud helps make them real. And I also think that the often the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve our goals is far greater and sometimes far more destructive than any pressure we could get from an accountability partner.
I still believe everyone should have goals. And now I know that there are points in our lives when getting up each day and putting one foot in front of the other is the only goal we can focus on.
I still think we need to celebrate all the little steps along the way to our goals. And now I know that this is easy to say and very hard to implement. And I also know that life is better when we celebrate, so it’s worth continuing to focus on how we celebrate when we talk about goals.
I love goals. I love having goals. I love talking to people about their goals. I love helping people and organization identify their goals. I love helping people and organizations achieve their goals. And I love that I keep learning more about goals all the time.