Goals and Intentions

At times in my life I have struggled with goals. Let me be clear: I have zero problems seeing the big picture, understanding where I, my team and my clients need to go, and then setting concrete goals to achieve the vision.

Where I run into challenges is when I start working on goals and I see that some goals are too high, some too low, some are no longer relevant, some will take more time than expected, some will be accomplished very quickly, and so on. I am reminded of the Marine Corps belief that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Sometimes the enemy of our best intentions and planning self is the actuality of the doing and the subsequent adjustments and bargaining that takes place in our minds as situations change.

While I believe that setting goals can be helpful and important for many people, I also appreciate some counter perspectives or alternate thinking around not setting goals. One of the most outspoken opponents of goal setting is Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL player, current Fox football commentator and author of the Book “Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits.”

In the book as well as in a TED video, Acho says, “The surest way to fail in life is to set a goal.” This thinking is indeed “illogical” – given the conventional wisdom that most businesses and most people operate on today. That is, you set goals, you work on the goals, you measure and track progress, and after some passage of time you determine if you have met your goal, failed to meet your goal, or even exceeded your goal.

Acho shares how failing to meet goals can be tremendously discouraging, leaving one feeling devastated. For his last year of college, he had a goal of being selected in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. But then he tore his quad muscle, causing him to fall out of the top rounds of the draft. Acho claims that setting goals closes off the possibility of achieving even more than your goal. I highly recommend watching Acho’s Ted Talk: “Why you should stop setting goals (yes, really).”

I’m not going to try to talk you out of setting goals, because I myself still set goals. But I’d encourage you to add a higher level of thinking to your planning – enter the realm of intention. Intention is more of a direction, or an inclination without being timebound or limiting yourself to specific achievements. This will add to your ability to do great things and can help mitigate the sense of failure if you do not achieve one of your goals.

The key to remember is that goals and intentions are designed to serve you -- not you them. Whatever works for you is what works for you!

(Previously printed in "The Friday Advantage: Innovative Strategies to Manage Your Life and Career on Your Own Terms".