When a goal is not the goal

When I set my goals for the next year I test each goal by floating into the future and considering how my experience will change once that goal has been accomplished. It means I can approach the goal from both ends and see how they meet in the middle. Usually it pulls up some questions about how the goal will be achieved and clarifies the steps to achieving it.

A strange thing struck me this year, it is so obvious that I wondered why I hadn't noticed it before. When I go to December 31 and look at the finished goals there seem to be two types.

1. Goals that will be great to have accomplished regardless of how it happens. These goals are changes that I want to have accomplished and won't really gain a lot from the process. There are things that I will ask someone else to do and my only involvement is paying for it. e.g. Getting the flat roof resurfaced. There are other things where I am heavily involved but rather wish I wasn't such as dental work.

The thing I notice about these goals is that once there are done that is the end of it. Job done.

2. There are other goals where the process is actually a big part of the goal. The changes necessary to accomplish the goal are really what I am looking for. It is one thing to get extra income by winning the lottery but changing my business so that the profit increases is much more exciting. It means that I have gained new abilities that are mine forever and that the business has potential for years to come.

Perceiving goals as a way to learn new skills, make new distinctions and build long term changes in life or business is so much more exciting than just getting stuff. Running a marathon is a huge achievement but having a mindset and a body that can run a marathon is the real goal. Increasing turnover or profits is great but being able to make that change is the real goal.

The great thing for me about this distinction is that achieving a goal provides a lot more satisfaction than ticking it off at the end of the year, I know that each week I am making changes to my business and more importantly to myself that will stay with me. At the end of each week my business muscles have become a little stronger and my perception of what is possible has changed. Each stage of the goal becomes as important as the goal itself.

The picture is of one of the many ceps (called porcini in Italy) that I have found in the local forest. My initial goal some years ago was to find edible mushrooms to eat. Now I could just have bought some (available in Covent Garden at around £50 a Kilo) but learning to find my own is cheaper and much more fun. The skill is now mine for the rest of my life and searching the forest at dawn is a great time to see wild horses, deer, foxes and all sorts of other wild things. Once you realise that the goal is not the real goal life becomes a lot more fun and achieving the goal a lot easier.