Goal

To achieve a goal is to complete the attainment of a desired result. Deeply satisfying, especially if the goal was hard to achieve. Funny thing that part. I guess it is the perseverance it sometimes takes to get all the way to the goal. So, is it really so awful to lose 49 pounds and not quite make it to losing 50? Many goals are achievements on a continuum. Those, like the weight loss, are like that

To make a goal, as in a sports game, it is either made or not. What I mean, it was a goal or it was not, no continuum here. Time has something to do with goals too. A life goal, well, that is a big one, so big, it may never be fully achieved. Who has a life goal? Do you? And if one accomplishes their life goal in a month or two, was it a life goal? If not, why not? What are the rules about life goals?

Setting a goal is easy, consider the New Years resolution. Getting that goal is the part that takes work. I could say that my goal is to be a better person. Big and endless and why not, eh. Such a goal is what I call an umbrella goal, one that influences many sub goals. In order to continuously become a better person, I need to deal with the world, day to day, in a better and better way. What umbrella goals do you have?

Some people can be described as goal oriented, meaning they have the habit of setting and then getting goals. It is a characteristic like they are tidy or messy, but this one is they tend to use goals to advance their aims. Being goal oriented speaks to a kind of discipline. I like to refer to it as someone who has learned to eat the whale one bite (one goal) at a time. It is a way to get going and keep going

Some celebrate the big hairy audacious goal, BHAG. Me too, but not only the BHAG as that would be just this constant pressure to reach the almost impossible. Mixed in with smaller and not necessarily less worthy goals, yes to adopting a BHAG. To design such a goal is a values clarification process. Always valuable. Keeping it in perspective as one of a set, as a whale chosen to be eaten, keeps it sane and helps to achieve it

And then we have the goalie whose job it is to stop goals. Who/what is your goalie?

contact: jseiler@yournaturaledge.com