Do Goals Actually Matter? – Episode 413

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[00:02] Hello, partners. Welcome to this episode. We’re going to be speaking about goals and do they actually matter? Kim, you and I have not spoken about this specific subject, so I’m on the edge of my seat to actually hear your answer. Oh, cool. So I’m going to answer sometimes or depends, which is irritating, but it’s also going to get explained. And I am going to start my explanation with a statement that goals can be limiting. So I do think they matter, yet I think they can be limiting. So what to do instead, or in addition. And I love the term visioneer. I did not coin it. I’m sure somebody else did somewhere along the way, but I have adopted it fully as my own. And to me, visioneering or envisioning, you could use it that way, E-N-V-I-S-I-O-N-I-N-G, enables you as a person

[01:07] to purposely not set a goal, but instead to look up a little bit further, a little bit higher out there in the landscape where visions are, or you could even say dreams if that’s a word that works better for you, because we all know that goals in order to matter should have that smart acronym attached to them. It’s specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and with a timeframe. And so I’m all for setting fairly short-term goals. I don’t think it works in the long run at all, but if you have something that’s less than three years and you want to set a goal around it, it’s specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and with that timeframe, awesome. I think it can be helpful to you, but don’t let the goal limit you.

[01:59] And what I mean by that is what if you could do more? And I think a vision, which is not specific, it very purposely may be fuzzy. It’s not measurable because you don’t really have enough specifics to make it measurable. You can’t really put numbers around a vision achievable. It may or may not be achievable, but there will be so many good byproducts. And I’ll share a specific story here in a minute. Realistic. The whole point of visions is that they may not be realistic. Maybe they are, who knows? And it doesn’t have a timeframe because there is a fun saying, I think this comes from Dan Sullivan, and that is there’s absolutely no goal that is too big. There are just goals with too short of timeframes. So that being said, let’s take a look at

[02:56] something like raising a certain amount of money. So let’s say I want a hundred thousand dollars for something. I have this awesome investment and I really want to do it. And I want to do it in this calendar year because I’m going to get this awesome tax deduction for it. And so that’s my goal. It’s six months from now. It’s a hundred grand. It’s absolutely all of the things. It’s specific. It’s measurable. It’s achievable. I can actually do it. It’s realistic. It’s not a billion dollars. And it has the timeframe on it. Well, what if I could do more? What if I could get to a hundred and fifty thousand? What if I could get to a hundred thousand, but it only took me three months instead of six months? I mean, these are all questions that are completely legitimate. And so having a vision,

[03:40] I think brings in the question of why. And if my why I want the goal is really clear, and if my why is very emotional, then I’m going to have a better chance of getting to that goal and beyond. And I actually know people that set goals, but attach the sentence to them or something more or something better. So here’s my fun story. I have a goal. Yeah, I’m going to call it a goal. I had to think there through a minute. Is it a vision and it, you could argue, but let’s just go with it’s a goal of living to a hundred and forty. Well, that’s clearly specific. It’s measurable. Is it achievable? I have no idea. Is it realistic? Yeah. When you look at the statistics of how old a fifty five year old is actually capable of living, you’re going to find plenty of statistics to support age one

[04:38] forty PS. If that’s a shock for you, go ahead and look it up. And then it has a timeframe on it. Obviously now my why is way more important to me than whether or not I hit the goal and the strategic byproducts that I’m going to get from that goal. Even if I don’t achieve the goal are way more valuable to me. So what do I mean by that? Well, my why is so that Todd and I can be married a hundred years. And that’s just a cool goal for me. Like I look at these elderly couples and they’re celebrating their 60th, their 70th, their 80th anniversary. Well, I want to celebrate a hundred years with Todd. I just think that would be awesome. And I love what it does for us and me and him for our relationship, for our farm that we live on. I just love all the kinds of things

[05:34] that that one hundred year vision. So now it is definitely more of a vision does for me. So do I hit it? I don’t know, but what do I get in addition? And it’s all the byproducts of the mental landscape, the health that I pay attention to because in order to live that long, I better be doing a good job today. The perspective that that enables me to have as it relates to various projects that we get involved with and other things that we want to do that are goal oriented, like around our charity that is for financial education called Prosperity Economics Movement. So the vision stretches that goal and it enables me to withstand the uncertainty, number one, but number two, benefit from the byproducts.

[06:30] You know, that’s that is a strong vision. You know, as you spoke about that, I think that oftentimes what happens is that the seconds after you achieve the goal, that’s quite a almost disappointing feeling. And even even when you’ve done something remarkable that you’ve worked hard for, it’s like, oh, hmm. So it’s that just and maybe I’m cynical in some ways, but I found that to be the case. Whereas what you’re talking about right now, being a visioneer, that’s something that you’re going to collaborate and it’s more than just climbing to the top of the mountain. It’s so fun to raise your head, to lift your chin up and purposely get that longer lens in there. And then there’s one additional critical thing and that is how you measure. And this is the other reason that I answered

[07:38] your question about goals matter with a depends. They matter that you set them. They may matter that you achieve them. And as you identified, because they can be depressing so shortly thereafter, especially if it is something monetary related or physically related, materially related, like, yeah, I want this car. OK, now I have this car. It’s so important that we measure backwards. So this is a Dan Sullivan thing that he taught me long time ago. And he’s going to have a book out on it called The Gap and the Gain. It’ll be late in 2021. And it is important that you measure backwards so that you’re not in the gap. And the gap is the space between where you are now and your ideal that’s out there

[08:23] in the future, which may be your goal or it may be even past your goal. Nevertheless, if we’re constantly measuring ourselves in that gap, the space between where we are and where we want to be, we are going to be depressed. We are going to be frustrated. We are not going to be good parents. We’re not going to be good team leaders. We’re not going to be good visionaries in our community. Whereas if we measure backwards, which is just taking a moment every day and turning around literally and looking behind us at the progress we have made, then we will be confident. We will be humble. We will be able to be good parents, good leaders, good visionaries in our community. And this book, which I’ve had the pleasure of reading

[09:09] some drafts, is being written by Ben Hardy. And I am so excited to be able to share that with our listening community when it comes out because it really drives this point home of go ahead and set those goals and those visions. Just make darn sure you’re measuring backwards. That what you just said is the reason why people listen to this podcast. That’s it. Because you’re helping our listeners see the progress that they are making. See this path of prosperity that we’re on, there are listeners that are just getting started as we’ve talked about in other episodes of 15 year olds that are just learning. And there are people that own large corporations and families that have generations and generations of wealth.

[09:59] What you just taught is something that will help every single listener. So I want to thank you for that. It’s a joy to share. Thank you listeners for being a part of this podcast. Make sure to look at the show notes for any of the resources that we mentioned and give us a follow on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to the prosperity podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you. Visit us at partners for prosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.