Goals

The last couple weeks of the year I always find myself evaluating goals. I monitor them throughout the year of course and sometimes edit if my priorities have changed. Many moons ago I worked with a new age drifter type who once stated while talking about goals, "what's the point of goals if you're just going to reach them?" I was appalled at his aloofness to something I thought was integral to achievement. But he wasn't a dope so I had to take time and think about what he was really saying. 

What he intended to say was that hitting your goals is somewhat pointless unless you understand what goal achievement means. In other words WHY is this a goal of mine anyway. In our conversation I was talking about how I had a goal of hitting a certain sales number so I could win an award. What I failed to state was WHY I wanted to win the award, WHAT it meant to me, HOW I was going to do it, etc. You get the point. He wanted to know what it would mean to me personally and professionally to reach this accolade. Without that, he was saying, a goal was an empty achievement. 

This past December rather than sitting down and writing new goals for the calendar year I thought about the person I want to be a year from now and I decided a few things. A year from now I wanted to be a person that could converse loosely in French, finished and started to market a screenplay and shed some unnecessary fat. As I write now I've done okay. A few too many cookies kept the weight on, but otherwise I'm pleased with the progress I've made on each goal. 

Whether you evaluate annually, quarterly or otherwise the point is to think hard about your growth as a person and a professional. Tie a WHY, WHAT, HOW to each goal and go make it happen.

Tres Bien! (Stoked!)