GOAL FEVER

Do you get really frustrated when somebody tells you that the way to attain all of your personal and professional objectives is to set effective goals?

It aggravates me because I believe I set effective goals. My goals are written, definitive, committed to and environmentally acceptable. Yet I don't always get what I want. I should, shouldn't I? I follow all the rules.

Don't all politicians enter the race with the goal of winning? Don't you strive to accomplish your work goals? Don't you enter tennis or golf matches with the goal of winning?

During the opening ceremony of the '92 Summer Olympics, swimmer Ron Karnaugh's father died. Ron committed to swim in his father's memory. When it was Ron's time to race, he wore his father's hat in the pool area, looked up to the sky as if to ask his dad for some additional inspiration, dove into the pool and finished sixth.

I've discovered over the years, as I'm sure Ron did on that Olympic-sized day, that I can set all the goals I want but if there are five swimmers faster than I am, I lose.

To avoid frustration and aggravation, consider this statement: A true goal is a commitment to accomplish some worthwhile outcome that is WITHIN YOUR CONTROL.

This doesn't mean you should not envision and aspire to accomplish desired results out of your specific control. It's important for you to have a direction and focus. But it's also important for your own emotional health and well being to recognize the level of influence you really exert over certain goal attainment.

Maybe there is a need for two different levels of goals?

Level One Goals — goals you strongly influence by your own actions. For example: finishing college, learning a foreign language, running in a marathon.

Level Two Goals — goals you influence by your actions but the ultimate decision as to whether the goal will be accomplished rests with somebody or something else. For example, sales objectives, games, politics, winning a marathon, etc.

Attaining Level Two Goals is certainly desirable, but remember a completed level two goal will always be the successful attainment of a series of Level One goals, with a dash of luck thrown in. Life is enough of a challenge without whipping yourself over results that are not within your direct control.

Lesson:  It's useless at best and frustrating at worst to set a goal whose outcome depends on something outside oneself.