I am allergic to goals. I’m allergic to personal growth coaches in general, but when they start taking about goals my eyes glaze over and I start withdrawing to that place where I focus on reducing my blood pressure. There are all sorts of reasons for this, reasons that I should probably talk to a mental health expert about. I’ve vented at length about my bad experiences with goal setting.

I’ve been watching a lot of hockey this year. You could say that finding a team to obsess over was a goal of mine. I succeeded in that. Hockey has goals. Most sports do, with the exception of baseball; which is kind of odd, being the American pass time and all. Hockey goals are 200 feet apart, well defined, and are the focus of much of the game. Maybe it’s wrong to think of personal growth goals like hockey goals. Stretching analogies is a habit of mine.

The Boston Bruins have a system for playing hockey. They focus on defense, preventing the other team from putting the puck in their goal. Tukkaa Rask, the Bruins’ primary goalie, leads the NHL in shutouts. This is as much a testament to Rask’s skill between the pipes, as it is the Bruins focus on defense.

The Bruins are a ‘physical’ team, which really means they hit hard and hit often. They wear the other team down. They defend, waiting for their opportunity to shoot on goal. They get a fair amount of criticism for playing ‘goon hockey’ over ‘skill’, usually from teams that are frustrated that they couldn’t put the puck in the Bruins’ net as often as they wanted to. It works for the Bruins; they’re the top team in their division. The way the Bruins play hockey has gotten me thinking about how I react to goals, and how I can apply their system to my own personal development.

The idea of playing the game your way, waiting for opportunity to present itself has a lot of appeal to me. The idea of being a solid player who is trying to protect your team has a lot of appeal. I can hear the voice of a straw-man personal growth coach telling me that this is a goal. I can also hear them tell me it’s not a good goal. It’s not ambitious enough. It doesn’t push you to grow. It doesn’t push you out of your comfort zone. Hell, you could replace ‘comfort zone’ with ‘defensive zone’ and you’d have a hockey analogy.

The Bruins focus on the defensive zone. They focus on playing a physical game, waiting for opportunities to present themselves, seizing those opportunities. I have heard more than once from Bruins players, “We’re out there playing our game, playing hard defense. Goal potentials will present themselves.” I imagine that’s something that Bruins coach Claude Julien plants in players minds. If so, he’s planted it in my mind too. Imagine that; me — taking advice from a coach.

In a lot of ways this parallels what Leo Babauta advocates in his ‘the best goal is no goal’ article, which I gravitated to when I was exploring my own reluctance to embrace goal setting. Leo advocates forming good habits, doing what you’re passionate about. The Bruins are passionate about winning hockey games. They do this with aggressive defense, physical play, and waiting for opportunities. They aren’t focused on making goals — okay, maybe Brad Marchand is — they are focused on playing their game, on playing the way they set out to play.

As an alternative to developing S.M.A.R.T. goals, tracking your performance towards achieving these goals; take a step back and reflect on how you want to play the game that is personal growth. Reflect on what is important to you. Decide how you want to play. Maybe you do want to focus on putting the puck in the net, working hard in the offensive zone making plays happen. There’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is wired that way. Some people are set up to maintain a system, a defensive posture, waiting for goal opportunities to present themselves. Those people aren’t lacking for playing differently. You aren’t lacking for playing differently.

Find your game.

Play your game.