What's Behind Your Goals?

Today I am sitting at my desk pondering what 2009 will bring. To do this, I have written as simple of a vision statement as possible and am pondering the goals that I have written from this vision statement.

As you read this sentence, I ask you, what are your goals for 2009 and have you written them down?

If you are like many people, you might think that developing a list of goals is a silly waste of time and you might be right. It does seem like a silly waste of time to sit and ponder what you want in life, then think about how what you want will help you, and then develop a list of action items that you can move on that will get you started on accomplishing those goals.

I think that most people have a problem with goals, because the topic of goal setting has been beaten to death. Most people are sick of hearing about goals, so it is time to take a step back and consider what goals really are and how we can go about accomplishing them.

What I do is daydream about what I want. What do you daydream about? Do you dream about having more money or losing weight? If you are, then dig deeper and really start dreaming about why you want more money or want to lose more weight. What you might find is that beneath those monetary goals and physical goals are dreams of doing amazing things or having better health.

For example, you might have a goal to make more money next year. Why? What do you dream about that requires more money. Maybe you want more money so that you can take more time off from work. Why do you want more time off? Maybe so you can spend more time with you family. So your dream is to spend more quality time with your family. That is your goal, to spend more quality time with your family…not to have more money.

After you write down your goals, think about what it will take to accomplish them. If it will take more money, then write that down as an action you need to take to accomplish those goals. Now brainstorm, is there anything else that will help you accomplish that goal? Maybe you can get better organized at work so you can get more done in less time, ask your boss for a change of assignments, or request that you be allowed to work from home two days a week. When you focus on the underlying desire behind your goals, you will find that there is a multitude of ways to get to the outcome.

So I challenge you as you work on your goals this year, what are you really trying to accomplish and what are the different ways to get there? Don’t limit yourself to one path and keep looking for ways to get where you want to be.