Essential to Achieve GOAL

Aristotle said-‘Whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. I am sure my reader knows it’s connotation. Interestingly it has differently been interpreted in different fields like gestalt psychology, biology and even in corporate to explain topics like team work.

But what value it holds in our day to day life……in our lives, WHOLE is the goal that we all want to achieve. A goal that gives purpose and meaning to life, something that keeps us focussed. Achieving our goal gives us the motivation and it is fair to feel frustrated if we do not achieve it.

From the beginning we have been raised in an environment which is highly competitive. Our success is defined as the GOAL ACHIEVED. A child is good, if he gets good grades, parents are proud only if the child cracks that tough entrance test that half of the world kids are trying to crack, a competent professional is the one with 7 figure salary…so on and so forth. Whereas it is great to have tangible outputs but the irony is that the environment is so competitive that it has only been about results and goals.

What we forget most of the time in this entire exasperated process, that sum might be smaller than the whole but whole cannot exists without these small parts of sum. What we forget the specific actions that will get us the goal.

What are these small parts of sum for us…well now that will differ from person to person. Sum can be:

• More academic qualification for better opportunity
• An additional professional certification to add value to the profile
• Learning a new skill to grow
• Understanding the disparity between the goal and the current position
• Analyzing where one stands in the market vis-à-vis peers

We fail to understand that a lot of right effort in the right direction at the right time has to go in to achieve that goal. But many of us get too fixated with the end that means are not given due attention. Goal is always the by-product of our right input. If there is input there will be some output. So we better put the right input so that we get the right output.

So next time when we get frustrated for not achieving our goals, we need to relook at our efforts- the means, the parts. What did I miss in the entire journey, which action actually had the magnetic power to attract my goal that I probably overlooked? Remember whole will only form by the sum of its parts. Do not get overwhelmed by whole….relook and focus on the sum of its parts.

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