Smart Goals Won't Get You to The Moon!

I don’t recall exactly when it was, but I do know it was more than 20 years ago while working in the finance industry that I was first introduced to the concept of setting smart goals. When it was presented to me the acronym encouraged me to set goals that were:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-related

I went about setting goals according to this formula and found my motivation lapsing very quickly, in fact, I found these SMART goals to be boring and uninspiring which meant that few if any were ever achieved.

Unfortunately for me, and a lot of my colleagues, this goal setting approach was encouraging us to;

?               make incremental steps,

?               aim for something that was reasonable,

?               stick to what was accepted as part of the cultural norm,

?               do something we already knew how to do, or

?               follow the crowd and set similar goals like everyone else on the team.

On some occasions, we were encouraged to focus on outcomes that in the end didn’t really matter. Such as setting goals for a certain number of widgets instead of setting goals that would be a natural cause of more widgets, such as finding new and exciting ways to delight more customers and make a difference.

I soon discovered that I had the purpose of a goal upside down and inside out, it wasn’t to get more “things, stuff, widgets” the true purpose of a goal was to showcase my talent and ability (some of which I didn’t consciously know existed). The most inspiring lesson I learned was that the right type of goal should provide an opportunity to develop new characteristics and abilities, it would lead to exponential growth not just for me, but for the team and potentially the world around me.

In today’s world, things are moving rapidly and unfortunately the people setting what they believe to be attainable and realistic goals will be left behind. Companies like Google encourage their team to set Bold goals, sparked with imagination and fuelled with data, they think big but start small, they up the ante on risk taking and experimenting with their ideas.

When they set a goal, they don’t know how it will happen, or when, they know that the fun and excitement comes from discovering how they can make it happen.

How exactly will you achieve your bold goals, or bring your Moonshot thinking to life? No one will ever know for sure. Do you think the USA knew how they were going to get to the moon and back in 1961? They didn’t, but that didn’t stop them from thinking big! In a 2013 video Astro Teller, who heads Google X said

“You don’t spend your time being bothered that you can’t teleport from here to Japan because there’s a part of you that thinks it’s impossible, Moonshot thinking is choosing to be bothered by that.”

When setting individual or team goals the end result is important, but remember the real value comes from what happens to the individual or team along the way. It’s what it brings out in them during the journey that provides the personal satisfaction and inspiration and the motivation to keep going. A smart goal usually doesn’t provide that level of inspiration and can block creativity. The World Economic forum lists “complex problem solving’, Critical Thinking” and “Creativity” as the top 3 skills you will need in the workplace by 2020. Smart goals won’t nurture these skills, and could potentially suffocate them.  Moonshot thinking and Bold goals will help to enhance and develop these critical skills. Elon Musk, with his audacious goal to colonise Mars, doesn’t seem that crazy after all.

“Moonshot thinking starts with picking a big problem: something huge, long existing, or on a global scale”. Astro Teller

Are you convinced enough to set bold goals for yourself and /or your team?

As you go about deciding on your goal be aware of the one thing that holds most people back from setting bold goals and encouraging Moonshot thinking, and that is fear! The fear of mistakes and failure. To progress we all need to redefine failure and mistakes. So, let’s get one thing perfectly clear right now, you will make mistakes along the way, but know this, you probably have been programmed to set goals that provide incremental gains and to believe that mistakes are not good for you, when in fact they are the fastest and best way to learn, grow, expand and make exponential moves. Even rockets fail their way to the moon!  Mistakes and failures will be your best and most honest teacher and they are the only way you will in fact achieve your goal. If you discover that your goal is as useless as an ejection seat on a helicopter, then be sure to rethink your goal or fail fast and move on to the next bold goal.

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. Oscar Wilde

As you progress through life and your career, if you are wanting to achieve anything of any significance, you will need to know what constitutes a Bold goal brought about by Moonshot thinking.

Here are some do’s and dont's:

Don’t

?               Set a goal based on what society thinks you should be, do or have.

?               Go after something you already know how to achieve. (that’s an item for your to do list)

?               Make your goals about you!

?               Play it safe.

?               Worry about how it will happen.

?               Follow the crowd.

 Do

?               Challenge the status quo and your existing internal programs.

?               Stretch yourself further than you have ever stretched before.

?               Surround yourself with big thinkers.

?               Go after what you have always wanted with the aim to make a difference.

?               Be frightened, sacred, excited and inspired all at once.

?               Make mistakes – and learn from them.

?               Be relentless in the pursuit of your goal (unless it turns out to be utterly useless)

?               Make it about others.

?               Take risks and back yourself.

?               Be ready to grow and learn new things.

?               Collaborate, seek help and advice from others.

?               Enjoy the ride.

The bottom line is, you must set goals! Many people fail in life without them, they don’t fail for lack of ability, they fail due to the lack of direction, they have nothing to organise their energies around. So, set goals and aim for the moon, who knows in this day and age, you’ll likely end up on Jupiter.

Georgia Ellis is the founder of Blue Chip Minds an organisation committed to helping people break away from past conditioning, make bold moves and position themselves for even greater success.

Learn more about our programs that encourage bold goals and Moonshot thinking here. Or contact Georgia directly: [email protected] +61428123233