Goals/The Feedback Loop

How much time, effort, and sometimes even money have you already spent on trying to figure out how to build a user-friendly, functional, and easily-reachable set of goals? One’s interest, motivation, and all enthusiasm start to wane after a few weeks or months of unsuccessful trying.

Or how about this: You just finished a great summer program and perhaps you were given a goal chart with specific instructions on how to achieve your goals within a particular time frame, which makes no sense to you. How is that working?

Because each of us is internally wired differently and use different inner languages, exhibit different motivational systems, traits, and behaviors, and make different choices, I hope you can understand that no one plan works for everyone. So, decide what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it, and lastly, be able to measure your success. (Did you reach your goal?). Are the benefits, intentions, and purpose of accomplishing your goal REAL or just some naive fantasy? Logically how long do you believe it will take to accomplish this goal? There is no right or wrong, better or worse, to any of this.

Try this: Write down all the good things, the perks that you will gain because you accomplished this goal, including how you will feel. Next, list all the perceived problems, sacrifices, and events that reaching this goal might cost you. Finally, ask yourself truthfully, "Is it worth it?"

That is one way to start this process and clearly help you decide what it is you do want.

Another roadblock that might pop up is that you haven’t yet found a way that is helpful or relevant in measuring the results of your endeavor. However, once in play, having your own goals set within your own timetable is, in reality, just a way for you to check in from time to time (usually daily) to see if you are moving in the direction you want to be going within your own time frame. Then you can easily measure your success by looking at the results and outcome of what you have just done, adjust if necessary, and move on.

Creating a goal, then a plan of action to reach that goal, simply lets you know where you are right now, where you want to go, and your estimated time of arrival, nothing more complicated than that. This then becomes what is called a Feedback Loop. Nice, right?

How we learn:

1. Unconscious Incompetence (Didn’t know you didn’t know)
2. Conscious Incompetence (Realizing you don’t know)
3. Conscious Competence (You can do whatever it is, but must be and stay focused on what you are doing and how you are doing it)
4. Unconscious Competence (Now it’s a habit and you just do it without having to think about it.)

Avanti, and ciao until next time.