Even passive goal setting creates energy

Are you one of those "goal setting people" or do you hear "it's important to set goals?" and think "I know, I know...I've got to do that..."? Or do you, like me, fall somewhere in between? Because my friend and colleague, Dena, has been writing about goals in her blog lately and because many of our challenges are similar, between reading her blog and our email discussions, and my general sense of an upcoming change, I'm thinking of goals a lot these days. It doesn't hurt, either, that Dena has sent an email to several of us with a challenge (actually she called it homework, if memory serves,) related to goal-setting for an upcoming meeting.

Her challenge couldn't have come at a better time. During the past few weeks it's become more and more apparent that I want to put more of my focus into jewelry design than the other things I do. During this time, the Universe has sent me these clues, among others:

• The director of a local senior center where I conducted two sessions on beading has expressed an interest in having me come back.
• The director of the art camp I taught at on Monday reminded me that she has space on the fall schedule if I'm interested in teaching more children's classes.
• Emails from people interested in my necklaces has doubled during the last week alone.
• A potential web client I've been exchanging emails with, and with whom I had a great meeting a few weeks back, emailed me yesterday to say that although they are interested in using my services, they'd like to table a website project until August or September. It's not a "no" but it's not exactly the "yes" I was expecting, either.
  

What that leaves me with now is a fuzzy idea that even if you don't get your goals set tidily and neatly in the way you say you intend, your message is still being heard loud and clear. The projects and opportunities that are coming my way are more and more related to jewelry design.

Now, of course, I'm left with the question of whether or not teaching beading classes to children and seniors is really that close to my goals of designing my own jewelry. The answer is, of course, it's a lot closer to building websites for other businesses.

On the downside, I haven't created nearly enough new pieces of my own lately and I'm wondering if I'm not running the risk of just trading one set of activites for another set. So I have to give that more thought and get serious with my solid goal setting. We all know it works. And evidence suggests it's working already. I might as well jump in and take the lead before I find my schedule full of a whole bunch of other lovely tasks that get me no closer than I was before to being a full time jewelry designer.

Comments

[Dena]

It's so hard to see past the tasks that fill our days to the "goal" (read: dream/vision) we have for our lives.

Ever hear of a BHAG? It stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I was told by a business coach to write your BHAG down and post somewhere you see every day. So for example, a BHAG could be, "I want to sell my jewelry to Macy's department stores." Then every goal you set, you see whether it aligns with your BHAG.

Also supposedly helps with the "tasks" that come up in life. If the BHAG above is your goal (and I just made that up), but someone asks you to design a website, is that taking you on the path closer to your goal?

But then there's the whole question of practicality (i.e., "I need money,") vs. the dream. Very hard, this goal-setting stuff...

[Melody]

Dena I LOVE the Big Hairy Audacious Goal idea!!! Thank you. Reading what you wrote inspired me to even acknowledge something I think of as a BHAG. Wrote it down, too. It's okay if you aren't ready to blog about your BHAG, though, right?

[Dena]

I think we need to be careful to share out BHAG's only with those people we can trust to honor and respect the goal. Too many people are quick to point out, "That will probably never happen," or "How on earth do you plan to do that?" Okay, they may be right, but your dream is your dream is your dream. Share it only when you know someone will say, "I think that's great. What can I do to help you reach it?"

My opinion, anyway.