I went to a conference recently where the presenter was explaining how to win more clients by helping them reach their objectives, but the concept applies to any kind of goal setting. It was a pretty straightforward idea:
Your client is in a present state and has a desired state. In between are obstacles. If you can help your client articulate and overcome those obstacles, that's how you make money.
It makes sense, right?
We all have dreams and aspirations in our professional and personal lives, yet we often never achieve them.
A study of 3,000 people in the U.S. who made New Year's resolutions such as losing weight or drinking less showed that just 12 percent were successful by the end of the year.
Setting goals and falling short can be more than just disappointing. Failure can also sap your self-esteem and motivation, research shows.
It would be easy to blame failure on the obstacles: not enough time, injury, dog ate my homework.
Yet the problem is often not with the obstacles, but with the desired state.
There is a concept in psychology with a complicated name that I just call the Magoo Effect.
Mr. Magoo was a cartoon character who was incredibly short-sighted. He could see things right in front of him, but everything else was blurry, so he'd get into all kinds of trouble and yet be completely oblivious to it.
It's the same for us when we look at time. Things close to now seem concrete, real and important. Those further off into the future seem more abstract and less relevant to us.
This is true even of our future goals.
The present state and obstacles are in the present, but the goal is in the future. So that goal can be much fuzzier than we realise.
The result is we focus on the obstacles, because they're right in front of us. When we've tackled one obstacle, we go looking for the next one, and then the next one, until we gradually lose sight of what we're trying to achieve.
To overcome this problem, we need to make the vision of achieving the goal compelling and motivating. And the way to do that is to create a vision that seems as vivid and real as what you can see right in front of you right now.
Get a piece of paper and write down your responses to each step:
Think of something you want to achieve – it could be personal or professional – and a date when you want to achieve it.
Now imagine it's that day, and you’ve achieved your goal.
Where are you?
Who are you with?
What are you doing?
What are you saying?
What are you thinking?
What are you planning?
Finally, close eyes for a few seconds, and ask yourself: How does this future feel?
When you've finished, give that future a mark out of 10. If it lived up to your expectations, great. You've just made that goal more compelling.
If it was a bit disappointing, no problem. Try a different future on for size. With your imagination, you can keep trying futures on for size just like you keep trying clothes on for size.
Until you find one that fits.
Often we think about the future as a vague sketch. To make your goals motivating, you need to color that sketch in.
Want to be more futurist? Sign up for The DIY Futurist.
Comments