How are you defining your Goals?
I’m writing this piece in introspection.
What triggered this article was an observation I made about myself recently. At the beginning of this year, I told myself that I’d try to get my Medium following to a hundred. Probably because the goal was objective and metrics driven, it stuck with me. Which is the good part.
The not so good part was that this turned out to be my only objective. And my efforts were directed around the goal of gaining hundred followers. And when I looked back at this a couple of days ago, somehow my objective on Medium seemed to have shifted from “writing good articles” to “gaining hundred followers”. Something seemed amiss. I wanted to re-align.
I took a step back and thought. I’ll publish “One article a month” I determined. Again a goal. Again outcome based. Better oriented towards Writing and not about the collateral benefit of gaining followers or visibility.
But the question still remained. “One article a month” could mean I could write on the twenty-ninth day and not even bother about writing for the rest of the days. Would that help me become a better writer? Or even a writer in the first place?
Then came to mind this insightful nugget of wisdom by James Clear. The Identity Rule. If I wanted to become a writer, the first step was do believe that I can be one. And more importantly, set processes in my routine that help me become one. May be even “One article a month” was an outcome based approach. While outcome based goals help drive tangible results, the question remains — like James Clear says — what after achieving the goal?
What triggered this article was an observation I made about myself recently. At the beginning of this year, I told myself that I’d try to get my Medium following to 100. Probably because the goal was objective and metrics driven, it stuck with me. Which is the good part.
The not so good part was that this turned out to be my only objective. And my efforts were directed around the goal of gaining hundred followers. And when I looked back at this a couple of days ago, somehow my objective on Medium seemed to have shifted from “writing good articles” to “gaining hundred followers”. Something seemed amiss. I wanted to re-align.
I took a step back and thought. I’ll publish “One article a month” I determined. Again a goal. Again outcome based. Better oriented towards Writing and not about the collateral benefit of gaining followers or visibility.
But the question still remained. “One article a month” could mean I could write on the twenty-ninth day and not even bother about writing for the rest of the days. Would that help me become a better writer? Or even a writer in the first place?
Then came to mind this insightful nugget of wisdom by James Clear. The Identity Rule. If I wanted to become a writer, the first step was do believe that I can be one. And more importantly, set processes in my routine that help me become one. May be even “One article a month” was an outcome based approach. While outcome based goals help drive tangible results, the question remains — like James Clear says — what after achieving the goal?
That led me to think about a new goal that is centred around the Identity and the Process — rather than the outcome of having a certain number of followers or articles on my page. I felt spending thirty mins a day writing — four times a week — to start off — could be a good place to start. Like I’ve mentioned in the beginning, this is me introspecting.
However, when I look at this in a larger realm, I did notice one area where I have applied this Identity based approach to my goals. It is my endeavour to “Remain fit and healthy”. This has triggered multiple processes in the last one year, like working out 3–4 times a week, watching what I eat and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Has my goal been counting calories? Not really. I focus on portion control and knowing what I eat. Am I a stickler for working out a fixed number of times? This is easier to track. But as long as I’m around the 3–4 times a week mark, I’m happy! Here, I looked at having a goal that would define me, rather than some milestone. And thankfully — I’ve stuck to this for more than a year.
This led me to ponder on a bigger question. How could I translate this approach to my work life?? I’m a Sales Professional. My world revolves around targets and bonuses. There are days when I sit glued to what is the number that I need to achieve and what is it that I’ve achieved thus far. Is that too objective? I’ve heard from a lot of colleagues and seniors that ultimately numbers define success in sales. That is at the podium. At the finish line. But how could a Sales Professional define himself to go about achieving these numbers?
Then I thought that at the heart of it, sales is not about “numbers”. It is about “customers” and “value“ and “conversations”. “Numbers” or “Revenue” is an outcome. The identity of the sales professional lies with customers, value and conversations. May be, my goal as a sales professional should be more focussed on customer conversations that create value. Meeting targets would be the outcome. The bonus would be the monetary incentive for meeting the outcome.
At the same time, I’m also wondering is it enough to have “process based” “identity based” approaches and not have defined outcomes? May be not. Outcomes and milestones would help us know if we are on the right track. We could then tweak the process to help achieve the desired identity and become a better version of ourselves. In my case, be a “better” writer, sales professional and a “fitter” individual.
It’s important sometimes to just take a step back and look at who we want to become and what we want to achieve. “Becoming” someone, I opine, would last longer than “achieving” something!
Your thoughts??
