The Role of your Team in Achieving Goals

Successfully accomplishing a goal is rarely an individual pursuit.

We tend to share our goals with friends and family, inviting them to join us on the journey or asking for help with certain bumps along the way. It’s pretty well-known that having someone keep us accountable can really help us get things done. We all have those moments when we need to reach out for a hand—whether it’s for information, ideas, physical assistance, or someone to help out with part of a goal. And generally, it's a lot more fun to have company while achieving your goal.

When I think about my goal of hiking the entire Bruce Trail, I have enjoyed when people have come along for a day of hiking, I have asked for help with transportation, and talking about it with others helps me not to give up, despite how long it's taking me to complete this goal.

Most of us have a people around us who help us with our goals - whether it’s a formal team or a few friends. This is true for all people and particularly true for people whose lived experience includes disability. Most people with a developmental disability have people around them in formal and informal roles. Many formal support teams engage in some sort of goal setting activity with people.

But how often do we consider the health and capacity of that team before we embark on goal setting activities? Before setting my Bruce Trail goal, I didn't give much thought to the participation, support and help I would need. Yet the availability of my team greatly impacts my progress towards this goal, as I don't always have a hiking partner or driver on the days I would like to hike. Similarly, the team around someone with a disability might not be in a good place to support that person to identify and achieve a goal. Team members have other important priorities they are focusing on, there may be instability or transitions in the team, there may be conflict between team members, some team member may be unhealthy or exhausted and lack the creativity and energy need to overcome the challenges and obstacles that come up on the way to achieving a goal.

I wonder if taking some time to assess where things are at with our team, and responding to any challenges there might be a key step in goal success. It’s not enough to just ask, "What do I need to succeed with this goal?" We should also be asking, "Is my team ready to help me reach this goal? If not, what can we do together to fix that?"

The health, wellness, skills, and engagement of those around us play a huge role in our success. Let’s make sure we keep this in mind when we’re setting our goals!