Shift Your Goal Setting to Goal Getting
When I was growing up my parents always did their New Year’s resolutions, which included these three things:
- Lose weight.
- Get more exercise.
- Save for vacation.
These were declared loudly at the stroke of midnight and after a few glasses of champagne, promptly forgotten. This was the extent of my exposure to goal setting. But when it came to making change, my parents demonstrated amazing resilience and adaptability.
By the time my father turned 55, he had worked for the same company for over 20 years. One day, a brazen young head hunter came into the office and told everyone over the age of 50 that they had two choices, they could:
- Stay in their job and not receive any raises or further promotions OR
- Leave.
That was all it took. My father stood up, cleared out his desk, walked out the door and never looked back. Wow! It was a shock and what proceeded next was a couple of weeks of wandering and wondering, and many closed room discussions between he and my mother. Finally one night, my mother ceremoniously clicked her glass at the dinner table and declared that my father was going to set up his own consultancy business. He was an expert in concrete construction and had worked with and trained teams that developed some of the best innovations in his field, and now he was up for hire. (we applauded!)
The first two years of business were shaky, but he persisted and networked until his business began to take off. Soon he was traveling the world, consulting with teams in Saudi Arabia who were building a runway, working with the defense industry to repair cracks in satellite housing. He published a handbook on concrete construction, launched his speaking career, and by his early seventies had received a lifetime achievement award.
Goal setting is important, but the key is building your resilience to change. The difference between goal setting and goal getting relies on an important shift in mindset. You need to expand your horizons, humble yourself, and learn what you need to learn. You need to stay focused on new behaviors and traits, so that you can be ready to step into that bigger self you desire.
We have a tendency to react to life events the same way, over and over. In order to grow and change, we need to examine those reactions, and act with agency. We need to not just react, but to choose our response. People who are the most successful at making change take small, consistent steps every day. These tiny actions rewire them for success.
Why settle for less than you are meant to be? Why continue the way you are, if you think you could be happier, healthier, or more fulfilled? This year, shift your perspective from goal setting, to goal getting. Become the person you want to be by acting in alignment with that CreativeGeniusYou in every moment of every day.
Email me at to let me know what challenges you are facing in goal getting with your teams, your organization and yourself and win a spot in my upcoming Draw Your Future certification program. Let’s make 2019 the year of the shift together!