How High Are Your Goals?

by Wayne Buckhanan

Image via Wikipedia

Some people say you should set realistic goals. Some say that you should set small, reachable goals. Some emphasize large, inspiring goals. This article talks about how to take the best of each and combine them in your goal setting.

Do you have any “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals” that drive your life? The psychological benefits of setting these BHAGs is manifold. By the process of thinking bigger we expand our view of the world and allow our subconscious to resolve what it would take to reach higher than we ever thought possible. Not to mention the idea that you can “shoot for the moon” and if you miss you still “land among the stars.”

Now, your BHAG should be big enough and audacious enough that it is not going to take one step to reach it. You may have any number of milestones or intermediate goals you’ll need to reach before getting to the ultimate goal. Each of these milestones is likely to be a realistic goal even if they take a little stretching to reach. These may be on the level of the goals you used to create before setting your BHAG. They will take some planning and execution but are very reachable.

Each of those milestones will have some number of tasks that need to be completed. Each of those tasks could be considered a small goal. One of my friends likes to say “if you set the bar low enough you can trip and still make it over.” While this may be taking it to an extreme low, there is something to be said for building up a history of successes with small wins. Every completed task, goal, and especially completed BHAGs should be celebrated before moving on to the next task, goal, or BHAG.

By setting goals at all levels (big, small, and in between) we are able to leverage the benefits of each level while avoiding the dangers of setting only one type of goal. The key is in setting goals and creating a good plan through a proven process.