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Setting good goals
by: Wilma Keppel
Summary: Two methods for setting goals you're likely to achieve, and will like
once you attain them.
Imagine you were shopping for a house, and told the realtor only this: "I do not
want my house to have six rooms. It should not have a spiral staircase. And I
hate stucco, so it shouldn't have that." What are the chances you'd get shown
houses you wanted?
Sound silly? Lots of people set goals that way. "I want my wife to stop telling
me what to do." When she stops nagging and starts talking about divorce, he
keeps complaining. He achieved his goal, but it isn't what he wanted.
With goals that are vague or poorly thought out, it's easy to work hard to
achieve an outcome that you dislike once you get it. Or you might succeed, but
not notice that you did. Plenty of workaholics have that problem.
Societies make these mistakes too. Traffic jams make cars slower than the
trolleys they replaced. Citizens overthrow oppressive governments, only to
install worse ones. Automation reduces toil but throws millions out of work.
On the other hand, some people and groups do a great job of wanting things worth
having, and getting what they want in ways that really work. This isn't magic.
These people are doing something different that helps them succeed. You too can
learn to set goals in ways that work.
What are goals?
A goal is simply an end result you want or choose to work toward. Some people
distinguish between primary goals (what you want) and secondary goals (things
you must do to create what you want).
Goals are most powerful when you love them passionately and they align with your
values. Aligning your life, goals, actions, and values is one of the most
powerful things you can do to achieve what you want.
Goal-setting is often a process of discovery. You may not know what you want.
You may need to discover or create it, and you might change your mind along the
way. Many people discover their deepest values late in life.
Effective goal-setting
Two methods of goal-setting work exceptionally well to help people get what they
want and avoid problems. Holistic Management is a way of making better decisions
that helps people achieve what they want more effectively. Neuro-Linguistic
Programming is a way for people to become highly effective in any context. From
their separate roots in land management and personal growth, both discovered
some of the same key aspects of effectiveness:
**Work toward goals, not away from problems.
**Monitor and correct course. Look for early-warning signs that you're
off-course, and correct immediately. If what you do doesn't work, do something
else.
**Think holistically. How does each action or change work in context and over
time?
Particularly in the area of goal-setting,
the NLP and HM approaches complement each other. They are fairly
different in how they work and what they're intended to achieve.
While NLP assumes multiple goals or objectives, HM sets one
holistic goal or vision. HM also separates what you want from
how you achieve it. NLP has them dance, each influencing the
other until both the goal and the process of achieving it work
as a whole.
NLP goal-setting
This process was developed by studying people who were good at
setting and achieving goals, and who were happy with the
outcomes they got. It works for outcomes of any size.
You may find it helpful to have another person walk you through
the process. Explaining the details of your goal to them will
uncover any parts that are vague, undefined, or problematic.
What do you want?
**State what you do want, not what you don't. If you don't want
X, what do you want instead?
**Be specific. The better you understand how your goal will
look, sound, and feel, the more likely you will make it exactly
what you want, and the more resources your unconscious mind can
muster to help you achieve it.
**Where, when, and with whom do you want your goal? It may be
appropriate for some contexts, but not others. Mentally rehearse
it to find out.
**What larger outcome is this part of? How does it fit into who
you are and your major beliefs and values?
**What time-frames are involved?
**If you achieve your goal, what will that do for you? And what
will having that do for you? Ask these questions several times
to uncover what you really value. You might find there are
better ways to get what you want than the one you had in mind.
How will you know when you achieve your
goal?
**Be specific — what will you see, hear, and feel? What will you
be doing, and what will others notice about you?
**How will you know you're moving toward your goal? What is a
small but significant sign you're making progress? Sometimes
people achieve a lot without noticing.
**How often will you check your progress?
**Is there more than one way to get what you want?
Is your goal achievable?
If someone else has done it, then in theory you can do it too.
If you are the first, find out if it is possible. This may
require doing it! Many important advances were considered
"impossible" until someone achieved them, so other people's
limits may not fit what you want to do. If your goal is
impossible, you may be able to achieve the value of it in
another way.
If the goal seems overwhelming, break it into smaller steps that
seem doable.
Is achieving your goal within your control?
**Make sure your goal reflects things you can directly affect.
**If your goal involves other people, make sure it's about what
you can do. You might want your bosses to act friendlier, but
you don't control their behavior, feelings, or attitudes — they
do. Since you do control yourself, you might (a) change your
behavior in ways likely to encourage the bosses to behave the
way you want, (b) change your attitude so their behavior bothers
you less, (c) find a different job, or even (d) find a way to
restructure the company so nobody is boss.
**What stops you from having what you want now?
Are the costs and consequences of achieving
your goal acceptable?
**How will achieving your goal affect other areas of your life?
Other people? Society and the environment?
**Will the results be worth the time, resources, and effort
involved?
**What might be the benefits of not achieving your goal?
**How can you incorporate the good things about the present into
your goal?
**Watch a mental movie of yourself achieving your goal. What do
you notice from this outside perspective? Step into the
experience as if it was happening right now — how is this
different? Notice who will be affected when you achieve your
goal, then experience your success from their point of view.
What new information does that give you? Gandhi used this
technique to prepare for negotiations — it helped him consider
everyone's concerns and welfare.
**If you could achieve your goal now, would you take it? If not,
revise it until it's what you want.
Do you have all the resources you need to
achieve your goal?
**What resources do you already have to help you reach your
goal? Resources include skills and training, information,
attitude, internal emotional state, money, help or support from
others, etc.
**What resources do you need, and how can you acquire them?
**What would have to be different for you to have your goal? Be
specific.
**Do you want your goal enough to achieve it? If not, what would
need to change for you to have that level of motivation?
**Is the first step to achieving your goal specific and
achievable?
**What are you already doing to begin or achieve your goal?
**Imagine stepping into the future and having your goal fully.
Look back and determine what steps were required to achieve the
outcome now that you have it.
By checking your goal carefully, by experiencing it from
multiple points of view and from several points in time, you get
extra information to help you plan and proceed. You can catch
and solve potential problems in your imagination, where it's
fast and free. And by rehearsing the future so vividly, you help
yourself create the results you want.
Holistic Management goal-setting
HM is a way of making decisions that are sound financially,
socially, and environmentally. Goal-setting is just one step of
a larger process that helps people think through what they do,
keep on course, and achieve the results they want.
While NLP goal-setting works on goals of every size, in Holistic
Management, you set one goal for each whole. A whole might be a
company, company division, ranch, family, or individual. Or it
might be a community, watershed, region, nation, or even
international. It includes the key stakeholders and
decision-makers, plus the resources they have available. Wholes
can contain other wholes that have their own separate goals — an
individual in a company or a farm in a region, for instance.
A blueprint for what you want
A holistic goal is a long-term, overall blueprint for what you
want to create. It has three parts:
**Quality of life. State what is important to you. What do you
value? Do you want security? Adventure? Good relationships with
your family and community?
**Production. What do you need to produce to create and maintain
the quality of life you want? Building good relationships with
your family and community might require effective communication.
Security might require a reliable income.
**Resource base. What will sustain production and your quality
of life far into the future, and for future generations? Include
your community, landscape, and resources (education, money, good
reputation). Keeping your neighbors around might require
economic viability and a healthy landscape that will help your
community endure.
What, not how
A holistic goal includes only what people want, not how to get
it.
**The best way to get what you want may change with time.
**You may have to experiment before you find a way that works.
**People argue far more over how to achieve goals than what
those goals should be.
People in conflict almost always want similar things. Ranchers
and environmentalists both want healthy, beautiful landscapes
and sound economies that let them make good livings for their
families. Palestinians and Jews both want peaceful communities
to raise their children.
By leaving how out of the goal, people can concentrate on what
they all want. Very often that's the key to resolving
long-standing conflicts and finding a way forward that satisfies
everybody.
Committing to the goal
The goal will work to the extent that the participants buy into
it. This means that
**All the decision-makers need to participate in setting the
goal. If the janitors make decisions that affect your company,
they need to be part of the planning process.
**Keep adjusting the goal until it matches what everyone wants,
and people buy into it and consider it theirs. This typically
takes several years. As trust grows, people discover more about
what they truly want and value.
**Readjust the goal as people's needs, enthusiasms, and
priorities change.
Getting people to work together and set a goal is sometimes a
long, arduous process, especially if they begin as enemies. It's
tempting to shortchange this step, or try to impose a goal from
the top. Don't do it! The people work that gets done at the
beginning builds the foundation of understanding and trust
needed for success. These resources for dealing with conflict
can make trust-building easier.
If you absolutely can't get agreement about a goal, you or a
group within the whole can set a temporary goal to work toward.
Make sure you include as much as you can of the values and goals
of the people who aren't participating yet. Then get those folks
on board as soon as possible. Tony Tipton says, "I like having
my 'enemies' in the planning group, because I learn the most
from them and their concerns."
Testing actions and results
Once you form the goal, use it to test whether a particular
action will take you toward or away from the results you want.
For instance, a new job might pay better, but decrease your
family's quality of life.
Sometimes I find it helpful to ignore my good intentions, and
simply compare my behaviors and outcomes with my goals and
values. Focusing on tangible outcomes helps me bypass any
internal propaganda and make an accurate reality check. If I
find incongruence, I adjust my behavior, values, or goal.
When people align their goals, values, and actions, amazing
synergies often occur. Alignment often takes two or three years.
At that point, people gain incredible energy and effectiveness,
and move toward or achieve their goals very rapidly.
Setting goals holistically ensures that they are socially,
financially, and ecologically sound, and that today's decision
won't cause future harm.
Combining HM and NLP goal-setting
Holistic Management's strengths are its inclusiveness and a
planning horizon broad enough to include people, money, land,
and future generations. You use your holistic goal to test plans
and evaluate results. "Will this proposed action take us toward
our long-term vision, or away from it? Did the actions we
already took work, or not?"
NLP's strengths are the extra information you get from checking
and experiencing your goal from many different perspectives, and
the process for test-driving your goal and the path that takes
you there. You can fine-tune what you want and how to get it
before you begin.
By using the NLP process to test-drive and improve your holistic
goal, you can get the best of both worlds. You'll get to your
goal more easily, you'll like it once you get it, and you'll
have the satisfaction of knowing that your goal is good for you,
your community, the landscape you depend on, and future
generations.
About the author:
Wilma Keppel is a certified NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Health Practitioner, and NLP developer. She took her first Holistic Management training in 1991.
