The problem with goals is that if you don’t keep moving toward them, you can’t hope to attain them.
During the Purpose Party, we worked on ways to bring our goals into focus, break down what was needed to get from now to there and start taking those steps. Bruce Elkin taught us some procedures that we could use to chunk big tasks into little tasks (and not think of them as tasks but as steps toward our goals) — if you want to learn what we did, go grab his ebook, Thrive (though I will say, it was very helpful to have him lead us through the exercises in person).
Problem is, sometime last fall our Purpose Party check-ins slowed down. In 2012 we’ve managed one meeting (that did not include everyone in the original group). Have we met our goals? Nope. Are we closer? Yes and no.
My biggest problem? I’m not sure my goal is still the same.
During the Purpose Party, I led myself down a path where the goal was to be teaching. From a very young age, I wanted to teach and I do enjoy leading people to that aHa moment and, while I am not qualified to be a school teacher, I figured there were lots of opportunities for training peers.
When I got close to that goal, however, I started making excuses. (“If it’s important you’ll find a way, if it isn’t you’ll find an excuse“). I put things in my path and rearranged priorities. I changed the goal.
Now I need to reassess everything. Do I, in fact, still want to teach (in which case, I need to stop being my own worst enemy) or do I want something different? The other goal that seems to be on my mind is to make a living writing. While I didn’t identify that as a primary goal it has long lingered in the back of my mind. It’s only been recently that I’ve been doing writing-for-pay enough to know I can do it. I just don’t know if it’s my goal.
Only I still don’t know if that’s the right goal. I’m so far back I can’t see the target. My arrows are going off in all directions.
I need to set down my bow for a bit; reflect and refocus.
There’s a guest post on Michael Hyatt’s site that seems on point: 5 Ways to Keep Moving Forward When You Hit a Wall — point two is to “Question the Walls.” This is what I need to do now. I have to sort out what is keeping me from moving forward. Has the goal changed or am I just getting in my own way? Or is there a wall I need to climb or find away around?
I’m still confident that I don’t want to stay put on this side of the wall, I just haven’t quite sorted out what’s next.
photo modified from Arrows in Archery Targets CC-BY Ben Sutherland