I was walking in a local arboretum and while explaining something to my 15 month old daughter the blinking obvious occurred to me. Around the edge of the park was a row of trees that must have been there for at least a generation and I was saying that the straight tree line would have been “manmade”, because Mother Nature doesn’t do straight lines. (I don’t know the unisex version of “manmade” – “person made” doesn’t quite sound right).
Mother Nature (what’s the unisex version of that – “Parent Nature”?) was around for millions of years before us humans popped up and added into the mix of this world.
Only humans seem to do straight lines by surrounding ourselves with orderly brick walls, linear steel girders and flat glass.
With that in mind it is interesting when we think about business and goal setting for our careers (merely as a wish around New Year’s as many of us do, or more thoroughly planning them, which is rare), that we tend to think of it progressing in a straight line from the present situation to a desired situation sometime in the future.
I know this is stating the obvious and maybe it’s just me, but why would we think life will be anything but straight?
Life can be winding and evasive. Therefore “disciplining our disappointments” (as the late Jim Rohn said), managing our frustrations and overcoming obstacles becomes paramount.
We regularly need to re-establish our original Goal Outcome and the reason we want and need it. Remind ourselves of how it will benefit us and how it will benefit others. In addition, also clarify who the person we have to become to achieve it and how P.R.O.U.D. we will be of ourselves.
How do I achieve my Goal Outcome?
Something that most of us are reluctant to do is make our Goal Outcomes public knowledge. I do not think we need to share it with everyone and their dog through social media. You will get too many nay sayers and unsuccessful people telling you in various ways that it is not possible.
However, if we were to tell people whom we respect their feedback of us; those in our “inner circle”, this could create enough internal motivation through the discomfort of not achieving and the accountability of acknowledging that to others.
Maybe not wanting to let down those we care about could give us the nudge to keep going when other people around us can’t see the future reality that we perceive.
Matthew Broomhead
“Raising the level of Business Skills in Britain”
Creator of Broomhead Business Channel