You achieve your goals - then what?

I revisit this theme occasionally, because it is a recurring problem for many of us. I wrote about this last in 2006.

Almost every one of us has a set of goals we are working toward. The more carefully the goals are defined, the more likelihood we will achieve the goals. When they are achieved, then it's time to move on and reinvent ourselves.

The big problem with goals or business plans, is that they may be based on a short-term horizon, like a couple of years. Those few years can fly by and your life or your business begins to flounder and you don't know why. It may be because you have overrun your goals. All of your plans were directed to getting to a certain point with no thought as to what would happen afterwards.

For example, the girl who plans to "get married" has to reinvent herself as a wife once the ceremony is over. The student who is dead set on graduating at all costs has to reinvent himself as an employed person once graduation is over. If they don't do this they are in for trouble.

You only get what you intend and most of us shy away from plans that extend too far into the future. As a result, we make plans for the next two or three years and concentrate on getting through life without too much collateral damage. When our goals are achieved, we can find it very difficult to refocus our efforts on a more distant set of goals. It generally requires us to reinvent ourselves.

Is that something you are prepared to do?

I revisit this theme occasionally, because it is a recurring problem for many of us. I wrote about this last in 2006.

Almost every one of us has a set of goals we are working toward. The more carefully the goals are defined, the more likelihood we will achieve the goals. When they are achieved, then it's time to move on and reinvent ourselves.

The big problem with goals or business plans, is that they may be based on a short-term horizon, like a couple of years. Those few years can fly by and your life or your business begins to flounder and you don't know why. It may be because you have overrun your goals. All of your plans were directed to getting to a certain point with no thought as to what would happen afterwards.

For example, the girl who plans to "get married" has to reinvent herself as a wife once the ceremony is over. The student who is dead set on graduating at all costs has to reinvent himself as an employed person once graduation is over. If they don't do this they are in for trouble.

You only get what you intend and most of us shy away from plans that extend too far into the future. As a result, we make plans for the next two or three years and concentrate on getting through life without too much collateral damage. When our goals are achieved, we can find it very difficult to refocus our efforts on a more distant set of goals. It generally requires us to reinvent ourselves.

Is that something you are prepared to do?

Reinventing yourself rejuvenates you and gives you new activities to focus on. It is the best way to master a constantly changing world.

Take a look at the plans you have for your life. How many of them extend past the next five years? How many of them take into account that you have situations in your life that will change drastically in the next five years? How many of them take into account that most of you will not be working at the same company five years from now?

Open your mind to the possibility that desirable opportunities await you if changes can be made in your skills and in your knowledge. Embrace the idea that reinventing yourself is a step forward, not a retreat from failure.

If your business plan has run out of gas, it's time to write a new one which will carry your further. Don't bewail the fact that your hard-won goals are being rendered worthless by time or circumstance. Reinvent yourself as the person who can solve your problems.

Remember, there is no rest point in life. There is only motion. Things get better when you do the necessary actions to make improvements in your life. Otherwise, they get worse. There is no other alternative.

Wishing you success in your next reinvention.

Comments

[Mouse]

Do you really mean reinvent ourselves or shouldn't we rather search for who we really are and that which we need to be happy, healthy and whole?
If we understand ourselves are we not more likely to make the right decisions and end up where we should be?
(at the risk of sounding too Hippy which is, of course, what I am!)

[David St Lawrence]

Reinvention requires you to look at what really matters and figure out what you need to do to achieve it.

You certainly need to look within yourself, but if all you go on is what it takes to make you happy, you might end up in a rural community among kind people who treat you with great courtesy but with a lifestyle that offers no intellectual challenge or source of income.

If you have a goal, who do you need to be in order to achieve it?

Looking at the world that way can quickly sort out which goals are really yours and which are those you have adopted from someone else.

Confronting life and its challenges is the first step to achieving goals. Figuring out who you have to be and what you have to do is the second step.

Doing it is the third step, of course.

You sense that things are becoming aligned when you are following the right path. When things get progressively worse, you need to reevaluate your goals.

[Murray Abramovitch]

By their fruits ye shall know them. (St. Matthew)

At the end of the day, achievement is not what we become, nor even what we have accomplished on the way; it is what we leave behind. What is our legacy? Have we made the world a better place, even if just a little bit better?

Any goals we set for ourselves are, by definition, short term if there is nothing remaining once those goals are achieved.

[David St Lawrence]

The legacy we wish to leave behind certainly defines the social value of our goals.

The test of something is whether it actually works and produces a desirable result, not is it approved by others.