“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
When you Google ‘goal setting’ the return is 27,000,000 results. A fairly significant number! The reality is goal setting does matter. The question for you is – how does this inforation help me? You that is!
Some folks say they are not really into goal setting. Let life happen is their often repeated mantra. Fine for them! Is it possible no one ever shared with them how to set goals and the critical importance of setting a goal?
“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.”
Let’s begin with a sea story – my personal favorite is always a sea story. If we go to a time and place when electronic navigation did not exist. All navigation was executed by utilizing charts, the sun and the stars.
“To Reach a Port, We Must Sail – Sail, not tie at Anchor – Sail, not Drift.” – Franklin Roosevelt
For most people, even the casual boater, the fact that the True North Pole is not in the same location as The Magnetic North Pole does not matter. For a short trip where you would like to know kinda sorta where north is – so the two north pole locations will not materially make a difference to you in your journey.
However, if you were taking a longer journey for a greater distance, the fact that True North and Magnetic North are not in the same location would have a significant impact on your navigation and potentially your location and timely arrival to your destination.
If one of the tools being utilized is a compass with a free standing Magnetic arrow pointer in order to effectively determine which direction, which course will take you toward your destination. Let’s assume you want to head north. Not a specific location – only head north. You may not be aware of this – the free standing compass is a magnet – it is this magnet which will point general toward the earth’s ‘magnetic north’. There remains a considerable amount of distance between the Magnetic North Pole and the True North Pole.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
Let’s now think about how we set goals as opposed to having a big huge dream. A dream remains a dream until we define small achievable goals with a date attached which move us toward our dream. Similar to taking one small step at a time to climb up a long steep staircase, it is worth it to determine small wins along the planned route. By plotting these points along the way we are able to determine if and when course changes are necessary. If our ultimate dream or big goal changes we need to adjust our smaller attainable goals to now move toward this big goal. During this process having someone to speak with to provide accountability, to provide encouragement and to double check if we are on track is invaluable.
This is very similar to goal setting and not finding setting goals to be important. When we take our eye off of where we are, where we want to go and then compare the results to reality – this is how we end up getting lost, confused and potentially nowhere near achieving our goals. When we are working with someone so we have a regular reality check, when we make course corrections, when we adjust our big goals for where we are now in life, all of this combined is how we move ahead and obtain our goals.
Consider taking steps each day to create “Intentional Living” – Be intentional and click HERE.
Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive coach, trainer and speaker who resides in Stamford, CT.
