The End of a Goal: Recognizing Achievements

What does it mean to achieve a goal?

Like many of you reading this, I love achieving goals. All my life, I’ve been very goal-oriented, and, lately, I’ve been digging into the reasons why to better understand my drivers. I’m doing this because I want to understand what I’m getting from the achievement of the goal.

Perhaps this seems odd – shouldn’t I already know what I’m getting from the achievement of my goal? Isn’t the achievement of the goal the answer? Partly, yes, but I’m thinking about the deeper level of what drives us all to summit the mountain of a goal. There are a lot of steps, a lot of effort along the way, and the drivers that keep us moving along that path are not always clear.

Make constructive use of your time

This weekend I watched a standup comedy special from Kathleen Madigan. Across her wide-ranging topics, she touched on Catholic school and the nuns’ assessments of her – “Kathleen does not make constructive use of her free time.” I attended 16 years of Catholic school – eight years parochial, eight years with Jesuits. I don’t often think back on those parochial years, but as soon as I heard that constructive use of time comment it brought me back to that ever-pounding drumbeat of my childhood to make constructive use of my time.

It's one of the lessons that dug into my core and has stayed there ever since. If you ask anyone who’s ever known me, they likely cannot think of a single time I’ve ever said, “I’m bored.” I’m absolutely not saying that my life is the opposite of boring, but I am saying that I took those childhood comments about constructive use of time to heart and carried them throughout my life’s experiences.

When reflecting on core drivers, this is certainly one of mine: make optimal use of time, which - if I had to guess - many of you reading this can relate to. I also looked at this as a challenge to be better, left open for me to interpret and define what “better” was. ?While internalizing this, “better” was a goal achieved, defined by academic and sports achievements, which translated into life and work achievements.

The Goal Hangover

Having the goal as the driver can be defeating. I touched on this in an earlier article, talking about that brief enjoyment of a goal, followed by the immediate need to figure out what’s next. This is a far different feeling than the one that comes from a conscious goal journey that is appreciated along the way.

For contrast, I’ve had numerous goals throughout my life where I was so focused on the end goal that I didn’t – I couldn’t – let myself enjoy what I was doing. Everything from going for a run to completing a project – I’d focus so hard on wanting to be done that I was honestly miserable throughout. If not miserable, certainly far from optimal.

Reflection and Unstructured Time

On the flip side of that, I’m currently working on my MBA. It’s a lot of work on top of being a parent and working full-time. This could absolutely have been like those past experiences – focusing on the end and missing the enjoyment and appreciation of what’s going to get me there. Fortunately, I had some great time to reflect on my drivers before starting school and began with a clear end in mind – to enjoy and appreciate each step along the way.

Going back to my earlier point about optimal use of time, it includes unstructured time like this, too. Having dedicated space to think, or meditate, or walk, or to do something, anything that removes us from routine existence has immense benefits, and certainly helped me with strategic thinking and long-term planning.

Coincidentally, this has also opened time and headspace to think about – but not dwell on – what could come next, allowing time to plan complimentary next steps without the pressure that often comes after a goal – that “what’s next” question that inevitably gets asked.?

Looking at a Goal Achieved

I recently completed a project that was the culmination of many smaller goals along the way. The project was a thought leadership report for my organization that involved the collaboration of more than hundred stakeholders along with outside vendors, including a research firm and creative agency.

While the end result is extremely meaningful, the steps along the way, when recognized and acknowledged, provide a framework for repeatable success, and there is a whole lot of value in that.

Boiling up the experience, projects like this have always pointed me back to Stephen R. Covey and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.?

Thinking in Quadrants

If you’ve never read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I highly recommend it. This is one of the books that never leaves my desk because I refer to it so frequently. I very rarely reread books, and I’ve reread this cover to cover twice, not counting the many, many times I’ve reread chapters for a refresher while thinking about a connected lesson from the book.

The piece I’m thinking about this morning, and that was vital along the journey to this goal, is the Time Management Matrix, which breaks down urgency and importance by quadrants.

It is easy to get swept up in urgency and distracted from a goal. There is an urgent call, an urgent meeting, an urgent message, and an urgent other thing that all absolutely have to happen at the same time to succeed. At least it often feels that way in the moment.

But not everything is truly urgent, and taking a step back to assess and prioritize helps realize that the call is actually contingent on something else, the meeting is to discuss something in the far future, the message is a general request that could be looked up by anyone, and the other thing is something already forgotten, and so lost its urgency within unevenly distributed brainpower.?

To achieve big, bold, audacious goals - also called BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals, coined by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and other great reads), though the hair part never sits well with me - it's so important to defend quadrant two time.

Quadrant Two and Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese word that means “something to live for," often looked at as a life journey - possibly the opposite of a goal achieved. When I think of quadrant two, and dedicating time to quadrant two components, it connects me with the idea of purpose and the pursuit of something that is rewarding and purposeful. When the goal and the drivers to a goal are aligned with purpose, it typically brings about quadrant balance by inherently acknowledging what's needed for the goal and the journey to it, and all of this contributes to Ikigai alignment.

In my next installment, we'll dive deeper into the connection of goal achievement, life alignment, and purpose. Until then, thank you for your time reading this today and have a wonderful weekend!

*Article updated on April 4, 2023