Got A Goal? Let Your Goal Determine Your Approach
To accomplish any goal, you must stack the odds of success in your favor. You have to seize every advantage and neutralize or eliminate every disadvantage. One way to do this is to let your goal determine how you will achieve it.
Your goal must dictate the strategy you use to accomplish it.
Most people are accustomed to planning their goals and dreams in a linear or sequential fashion. We tend to approach our goals in a lock-step manner that restricts our creativity and limits our ability to make quantum leaps towards accomplishing them.
A good example of what happens when you allow your goal to determine your approach would be the following - assume that you have booked a flight to the location of a business meeting you have scheduled for the following day.
Before the airplane takes off, the target is already set in the form of flight plans and schedules. The route is pre-selected, the fuel tanks are full, and trained pilots are prepared to operate the aircraft. How did all of these critical elements come together at the right time for you to be flown from one place to another?
The fact that you are flying from New York to Chicago is critical to understanding how everything comes together at the right time. Why? You must know where you are going - you must have a destination. Once the target or destination is selected numerous systems, processes and procedures go into action to ensure that the selected destination is reached.
If you were scheduled to fly from New York to Miami, a different set of systems, processes, and procedures would be initiated. You would probably travel by a different route; you may get a different set of pilots, and the amount of fuel you get will probably increase because of the increased distance. The key point here is that the target dictates the route, flight plan, speed, and altitude the plane will take to reach your destination.
Think about any recent goals that you have set out to accomplish. Did your target or goal dictate the strategy or plans that you used to accomplish it or did you haphazardly move toward your goal without a clear plan in mind?
Did you develop a plan without considering your target and how it can help you to develop your approach? Your target helps you to determine the:
Strategies you select Plans you develop Resources you acquire Coordination you initiate Actions you take
Here are a few questions to help you think about how to use your target to determine your strategy or approach.
Ask yourself:
What can you do right now to position yourself for success in the future? Where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5, and 10 years? How do we get "there" from "here?" What comes next?
Remember, when you let your goal determine your approach you are increasing your chances of successfully accomplishing your goal.
Related Tags: planning, success, vision, goals, dreams, purpose, questions, target
Vernon Myers is the founder of Student of Ideas.com - A website dedicated to exploring ideas and creativity. Visit this site to receive the Idea Tips newsletter - a weekly email that helps you to become a better idea generator.
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Copyright (c) 2007, all rights reserved.
You may copy, forward or distribute this article if this copyright notice and full information for contacting Vernon Myers are included. Contact him at: http://www.ideamerge.net or email: info@ideamerge.net
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