Goals. What's the Point
Sprout Sweater Episode 10 : Make Your Goals Work For You
Join Dave Algeo aboard "Sprout 1" and take another journey into your inner world where mind, meaning and metaphor collide.
This episode Dave explores the concept of goals and how we can often get it wrong. Understanding how they fit into the bigger picture of our lives can be a powerful way of using them to move you in the direction of your vision.
Dave Algeo is a writer, coach, trainer and speaker empowering others to live big, by identifying the small but significant things that can transform the life we are living. Join Dave on the good ship 'Sprout1' as we explore the inner galaxy of the human mind, and find the sprouts that make the biggest difference. These are the sprouts you are looking for.
Search for 'Sprout Sweater' in your favourite podcast feed. To find out more about the podcast, and episode show notes at Podcast — Stress(ed) Guru and more about his in person and online events at www.stressedguru.com. Drop Dave a line at dave@sproutsweater.com to ask questions, offer feedback or suggestions for future podcast content.
Episode 10 Show Notes
The following is a rough draft of the content (not a full transcript - more notes forming the basis of the podcast recording
When we are in the midst of it we can lose sight of our bigger why?
Welcome aboard Sprout1. I’m your host Dave Algeo chief sprout sweater. Strap in and ready yourself for another journey into our inner world where behaviour change meets the power of small sprout sized action.
It's episode 10 Goals. What’s the point?
As we lift off the pad and before we get into the episode don’t forget if you find that the demands of life and the meaning of it all is leading you to sleepless nights, tossing and turning, deep and not so deep questions rattling around your head then hop on over to sproutsweater.com and sign up for my sleep checklist and my soon to be released free Operation Snooze Sleep Improvement program. Start getting your head back and your shit together so that you can start getting life back on your terms, sproutsweater.com
After last week’s episode where I shared how to move through overwhelm by confronting the issue at the heart of your feelings of overwhelm I thought it would be useful to explore the concept of goals. What are they and why have them? Well first if you do a google search on what a goal is you’ll get a lot of different perspectives and yes they coalesce around similar interpretations but I think I prefer to stick to the everyday usage and add a coaching perspective on that. A goal is something you set yourself as something you want to achieve. Now that might be to lose a certain amount of weight or to run a certain distance, lift a certain amount of kilos with a barbell or as in my case achieve a muscle up at the CrossFit box.
You see, here's my thinking on goals.
How often do we set ourselves a goal, like running of a marathon for example in order to achieve a bigger aim, like getting healthier or losing weight etc. For example, my muscle up goal its not the end I don’t just want to do it for its own sake. No problem if it was but often we build in goals like this to move us forwards to a bigger vision of ourselves and the future or where we want to be and there’s a word for that – Vision. Now I know it get used in all sorts of context so again use whatever phrase works for you. The point is my vision was, is to improve my health and to be fitter at 66 than I was 45; see episode 8 where I introduce that and talk to Simon Ward the triathlete and High Performance Human coach. So, Ok the bar was set low when I set that goal of being fitter at 66 than 45 but when I mean healthier and fitter I don’t necessarily mean also being able to lift heavier weights at 66 than I could at 45 or run as fast not that I was either accomplished at either one. I see it as an all-round fitter me strength, endurance, cardio health, flexibility, balance and so on. That being an overall vision, something that I can probably always aspire to and never fully achieve, something where the work will never be done, I guess, I set myself incremental targets or goals along the way and that’s useful. But in the midst of it we can lose sight of our bigger why? I remember back in 2009 after several beers with my mate Stu, hi Stu if your listening. We, well he suggested we cycle Lands End to John O Groats which is about 800 odd miles of road, track, hills and flat. Now albeit I was a tad lubricated with alcohol at the time certainly helped in my agreeableness, I also recognized an opportunity to lose weight. I grant you it’s a savage way to do that but in my all or nothing way of thinking it made sense. In fact, I’ll be honest I remember thinking that’ll sort that, that’ll sort the weight loss and then I can. I can what? Go back to normal? Get the weight off and then return to what? And that’s the trouble. With goals if we use them in a misguided effort to achieve something then we can see them as isolated in themselves as one-off’s. And again, that’s ok. Let’s say you really want to run a 10K for a taunt's sake, great. Now as a coach I would be interested in digging a bit deeper with you exploring your why. What makes that particular goal so more motivational for you? But that aside, that's an honourable goal. But I would argue that goals are not our vision. They are milestones, many achievements if you like that fit into a bigger vision of our lives. One bucket list goal I wanna be able to do is to run the marathon disarb a series of ultra-marathons across the Sahara Desert in Southern Morocco. And yes I wanna do it for the achievement but I also wanna do it for the impact on me, for the impact on my life and for my sense of who I am, the bigger picture of that. It's not just the achieving and the goal that really matters, it's who we become or who I become in that as we work towards those goals. There's proving to myself in that case that I can. So, when am I going to do that or attempt that, well at the moment it's in the bucket list as I’m working on other goals like the muscle up and building up my running again.
But here’s my question for you for next week when we start to explore the power of small habits in getting it started and moving in the directions of our goals. What goals do you have, what actively working on and what have you parked or forgotten about or even talked yourself out of it. Maybe saying you're too old for x y or z, or who are you to think you can or it doesn’t fit in my life anymore. Remember it's not about achieving the goal, it's about the growth and the journey along the way to achieving it. So why not take a few minutes every day over the next week and build a list of all the things that you would like to achieve, do or get. Now a goal can be a physical challenge, or a purchase. For now, just add them to the list without judgement. You might even want to separate them out into achieve - some sort of achievement like run a 10k or get a promotion; do - which could be an experience or just something you want to really do; or get - purchase or some belonging right. Try not to censor yourself as you make the list. In writing them down there is no commitment being made here you are not saying to yourself you have to do them now or ever. You’re simply getting them out of your head. There’s a phrase that’s come up before in the podcast hasn’t it. Get them out of your head and see them and reflect on them. And reflect on them is something I do recommend but in the context of this question, what is your overall vision for your life? Again, I’m not making any commitments here and it's not about you making commitments it's just letting yourself for now dream and as well as what is your overall vision for your life, who do you want to be in the process which for me is the most important aspect of all of this. And sometimes writing that particular aspect down as a statement in the here and now I’m the kind of person who - treats people with, has confidence in myself, doesn’t let my own negative self-talk win out etc. etc. Whatever. Define who you want to be and who you see yourself as in this vision.
Now I know that sounds all big and grand and you may actually find that there’s a fair bit about your life right now that’s great. In fact, that is part of the process of self-coaching through this to realise what parts of our life are damn fine as they are and then identify where we want to tweak or make changes. For now, though this is an exercise in exorcising those dreams and hopes that we have perhaps put on hold or stuff back down inside. The how, well let’s work on that later for now start to develop a rough shape for your future vision. Establish what you already have or can do or be now. Let’s be right, being the kind of person who doesn’t let their negative self talk win out is something you can work on right now. It is not necessarily something you will leave until you achieve x y or z. It’s a work in progress , yeah but what isn’t. Having that rough shape, that rough vision gives you a direction of travel moving yourself and your life in that direction is our mission should you choose to accept it. And that’s where goals can help, revisit your list of goals and see which ones complement, contribute and actively move you in that direction. My example of the muscle up for example. For me it combines so many elements of fitness that it has a valid place to work towards my overall vision and it's also fun and challenging for me. Now why do I talk about rough vision and general direction of travel and picking goals that help you move in that direction. Well, let's face it right here right now you are setting your goals and devising that vision with all your partial information aren’t you. And here’s where I think for most of us unless you're ultra-focused on a specific path like competition training or definite career path or you know something you have set yourself on without kind of any doubt. If that’s not you, allowing some flexibility into the process can help greatly because that missing information that I’m referring to when you're setting your goals, we are setting goals with only partial information. That missing information is the future. We have no idea what the future holds, the good and the not so good. Imagine we hold now 10% of the information that we know just for purposes of the example and that 90% of the information is unknown to you, it's in the future and we can often embark on working towards our goals with some kind of rigid certainty on blinking in the face of challenge, change and opportunity as if there is no doubt around that goal. And this is where holding a general vision, having a general direction of travel means that as life happens we have the flexibility to adapt and adjust course or even change out the goal we might be working towards. That’s not being weak or lacking determination, indeed we are focusing our strength and determination on the bigger picture, the direction of travel. Life may knock us off course or place an obstacle in our path and may even render the achievement of a particular goal impossible. I mean who’s to know. We cannot know at this point or at the point of setting the goal. And if we rigidly fix ourselves on achieving a goal without being contained within that bigger vision or contributing to that direction of travel we can feel cut adrift. Like we’ve failed. Like we are not up to it and we can turn inwards on ourselves or get very bitter about the world. But if we recognize that the goal is not the goal, it is a means to move us in that direction we can switch it out, adapt it or even take a diversionary route via another goal but that one that keeps us moving in the general direction of our bigger vision and perhaps most importantly we can enjoy the experience and the scenery, the unexpected scenery that comes along from those changes and mishaps and the things that set us back. The unexpected different views are the experiences that we have, add richness and texture to our day to day lives. So as our craft the sprout1 begins the landing process allowing you to return to your fellow humans.
Plan to spend two minutes each day reflecting on your goals, the old and the new.
Capture any that pop into your mind as you go about your day. Ensure you don’t forget it, get it on a bit of paper or send it to yourself via text. Capture it and add it to the list when you can.
Think about your general vision for life and who you want to be as a person. The kind of person who…
Compare your goal list against your vision and the identity. Pick a goal or two that if you work towards will move you in the general direction of your vision.
On next week’s journey we’ll explore how small habits can help you move in the direction of your goals and your vision. Safe travels fellow sprout sweaters.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your flight aboard sprout1 for show notes and information on how to get the podcast feed direct to your apple podcast, Spotify or other favourite podcast feed visit sproutsweater.com and touchdown!
Episode 11 Teaser:
Building upon Episode 10, Dave shares how you harness the power of small habits to get to your goal quicker and shape a life more on your terms.