In a previous post I alluded to the fact that you really should have goals for yourself. Maybe I should explain why I believe this.
Firstly, goals are not just for hockey and soccer players. But therein lies a handy analogy – what would happen if you were a hockey or soccer player and suddenly you had no goals? Well, you’d loose your lucrative ESPN contract for starters. You’d then roam around the field, having some fun, but not really feeling any point to what you are doing. May be you’d question the purpose of you being on the playing field was. Most probably you’d loose motivation for playing the game completely.
Goals – be them big, fat, hairy, audacious, zen-like, modest, or generic – they are nothing more than the reason why we are here, and what we want to do while we are. And the best thing? You get to choose them yourself! No, really you do. Unlike most of the agendas you see on a daily basis, these are things that should be set by you. Not your boss, your wife, your son, your father, Gordon Brown, Barack Obama, or Simon Cowell.
So we now have a poor analogy and free licence as reasons for having goals. Great. But what are the real wins? What are the day-to-day upsides that make this worth while? Well…
- A greater purpose – like the hockey player you can get out of bed in the morning and have a raison d’etre;
- Better decision making – if you know where you are heading, then you have a better idea which of a number of competing actions best deserves your attention;
- More efficient productivity – focus is one of the most important assets in productivity, and nothing gives you more focus than knowing where you are going;
- Improved creativity – the biggest bottleneck to creativity? A mind-like-cement. Knowing that you have a destination, and that everything you are doing takes you there, frees your mind up to create; and
- Safer personal development – I genuinely believe that personal development is dangerous. To really grow you need to be willing to open up to yourself – and if you do this without being happy with where this path is taking you, you risk de-railing your progress.
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If you’d like a tool for setting your goals, you can use this web application:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A Vision Wall (inspiring images attached to yor goals) is available too.
Works also on mobile.
Quite nice this program – thanks for the link!
Rich
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