When setting personal goals for ourselves in the future, we tend to think in absolutes. We can tend to think about life as if it exists in a vacuum. Trains are never delayed. Illnesses and friction don’t exist. The internet never goes down. New events and opportunities don’t distract us. Things happen easily and seamlessly, and always take exactly as long as we expect them to in our extremely optimistic projections.
Life doesn’t always work that way. It actually rarely works that way. The issue is that setting goals for ourselves and constantly missing them can create some bad momentum. We can take it personally, and begin to feel like goal setting is useless, because we are that person who never achieves what we set out to on time.
A different approach is to use what I call “window goals.” Create a range for yourself. Think about the most optimistic projection possible, then also think about every possible setback and distraction to create the most pessimistic projection as well. This is your window.
Now, choose a range within there as your window. It could be 25-35%. It could be 45-55%. But leave room for life to happen. You can always exceed this if the circumstances work out right. Eventually, after getting good at trusting the process, you may be able to adjust this window higher.
It may seem silly, but there is a major psychological boost that happens when you begin to do the things you say you will do, when you say you will do them. It brings a great power to your words, and inspires others to take your words and plans seriously.
If you’ve set some lofty goals in past years, and gotten disappointed that you never followed through on those plans, let this new year be different. Everything that’s happened before is gone. It’s just a story. What you do from this point forward can be totally different from anything that’s happened before.
Let 2014 be the year you put aside the bullshit that doesn’t serve you, and bring your biggest vision to life.
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