We are officially 10 days into 2018! And, holy cow is it windy! Cold air is blasting through even the best-insulated windows, but I won’t let that deter me from my January mission—talking to you about goals.
I hope 2018 will be the year you learn how to use goals to do the most of good in your life.
Setting goals support your future by changing your present, so why is it you still avoid setting them? Does it feel artificial, scary, pointless?
One reason people avoid setting goals is that the process starts with thinking about what you want and then setting goals for your goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals— Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable and Timed—are all the rage. S.M.A.R.T. goals make good use of your analytic mind.
What’s the problem with that? If logic and evaluation is all it takes to reach your goals—nothing. Valuable as it is to any process, beginning with analysis focuses your goals on what you already know about yourself—not on what you’re missing. (Not sure what I’m talking about, see this.)
If your goals arise from judgments about the deficits in your life you're in a narrow, incomplete process that breeds disconnection from yourself and then, resistance to acting on the goals you’ve set.
Goals reach another level of potency when setting them incorporates the whole you.
What if you could get more in touch with yourself so that the goals you set would be goals that feel real? More about that process, soon.
In the meantime, are goals energizing for you? Scary? Do you avoid them once you set them? Have you stopped making them altogether?