A lot is said – and written – about goal setting in the self-help industry but I find it often focuses too much on specificity:
Create a highly specific goal, focus in on it and do your best to make it a reality.
What’s not emphasised enough though, is the ability to pan the camera back and connect your specific goals to the overall directions & greater purposes they belong to.
When we do this we access more of our natural motivation and connect with something that’s more meaningful and important.
The specific goal becomes a symbol of something greater.
So you’d like to lose weight and be slim?
*In order to do what?
*What greater purpose does this belong to?
Maybe it’s to feel healthy, attractive, to find a partner, to give yourself energy to live life to the full, or to feel independent?
Specific goals are just small pieces of a larger puzzle, and – just like you do with a jigsaw puzzle – it’s useful to have an awareness of the overall picture; how the pieces fit together to produce something greater and more meaningful.
Sometimes when we focus too much on the specific goal itself, we create tunnel vision and forget what the larger plan is; the greater and more important purpose it belongs to.
So to appreciate the bigger picture and make your outcomes more meaningful, think about a specific goal that you have and explore the following questions:
*Why is this important to you?
*What greater purpose(s) does this belong to?
*What overall direction does it fit into?
When you explore these questions, you start to connect your specific goals to their greater purposes.
Motivation comes easier, and the pursuit of your goal becomes so much more meaningful.
All the best
Steven
