If you're a goal setter, New Year's resolution maker or just a Type A go-getter, you're probably leaning in to life right now. Amidst the craziness of your week, it can be difficult to discern if your personal activities and professional tasks are helping you reach your goals. Often, we distract ourselves with superficially fulfilling activities, and we convince ourselves that these activities provide real value in our lives. The feeling of being burnt out usually sets in when you've forgotten your intentions, struggled to prioritize, or stopped setting time to align your day to day activities to your goals. Goals provide meaning, purpose and guidance. As we reach the halfway point of 2015 I challenge you to reflect on your goals and make the proper adjustments in order to regain focus.
I set new short term goals at the beginning of each year because it gives me an opportunity to evaluate how I want to better myself within a set period of time. I'm a terrible long term goal setter and I usually figure out lifelong goals for myself when I start with solid short term goals. Additionally, shorter time frames hold me more accountable. I often set several goals that align to various goal categories: social, financial, career, intellectual, family, physical, and spiritual. In January 2015, I discovered goals that fell in the career, intellectual, and physical categories.
My career goal this year was to get promoted at work. To do so, I used a model known as SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. When your goals have heavy external barriers, like a promotion or a new job, maintaining an awareness on the elements out of your control is equally as important as maintaining focus on the elements that you do have control over. Even if you think you're doing everything you possibly can to kill it on the job on a daily basis or get your resume out to as many companies as possible, understand that sometimes your ability to influence decisions is limited. Before I set my goal, I had a conversation with my manager to make sure my goal was SMART. Putting myself out there by asking for support in achieving my goal made me extremely nervous. Plan to be uncomfortable.
After speaking to my manager and reviewing my goals, he provided feedback in areas with room for improvement such as speaking up in meetings instead of waiting to be asked for my opinions and putting a greater focus on attention to detail, I set up a time frame to achieve that goal. I realized that if I set up more time to sit down with my manager to gather feedback and to put together a plan to work on my development areas, 6 months would be a reasonable time frame to achieve my goal. Even with his help, I knew my promotion was in the hands of an executive committee, who were not witnessing my daily performance. This meant that the recommendations from my manager and career counselor, along with my overall company contributions, were key determinants of my promotion. Knowing the specific requirements, time-frame, and top influencers to achieving your goals will build your confidence in executing the plan, boost your daily attitude, and improve your work performance.
Just Say No: Prioritize and Thrive.
Prioritizing your work, your social calendar, and life in general takes practice. Whether you do it consciously or not, you place weight on your goals in each category (social, physical, intellectual, etc.) to drive your decision making. For example, my intellectual goal this year was to engage with colleagues about current events. Instead of rocking out absent-mindedly to Spotify on my 20 minute walk to work, I began listening to NPR, TED Talks, and Freakonomics podcasts. Aside from unintentionally ignoring the friends that passed by me on the streets of Philadelphia as I was tuned in, actively focusing on learning more about world events and the healthcare industry that I work in had an immediate positive impact. I also subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and started following healthcare industry news sources on Twitter. After reading that a national health plan whose program directed at pursuing The Triple Aim of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care had published their preliminary results, I quickly captured the key points from the article and prepared them for discussion knowing that my client would be interested in comparing the national plan's program to their own. I pulled specific data points around how the plan measured their success, approached how to compare the control group against the test population, and determined the time frame for publishing their results which led to great conversations. Our client appreciated that I presented them with the industry leader's point of view, and that I was able to relate it to them.
Before I started listening, tweeting, and reading regularly, I knew that I wasn't speaking up enough at work because I just wasn't confident in meetings. I was scared of contributing without being an "expert". Following the media sources equips me with data points to add value to conversations. Though Sheryl Sandburg advises to take a seat at the table, I wanted to have an informed opinion before Leaning In. The choice in prioritizing your life activities is always yours and there is no wrong one - only the choices that allow us to achieve our goals faster, to live our life with the intention that we set for ourselves.
Recognize that shit happens. The resolution you made in January may no longer be feasible. If you challenged yourself to run a half marathon but got a stress fracture while training, it's okay to let it go. What you can do is quickly establish a new physical goal so that your disappointment doesn't linger and you're able to move on with a clear focus. Can you test yourself by striving to complete 100 push-ups in a row in 3 months' time instead? While I just about destroyed my body last year by conquering the Philadelphia Marathon, I also came to understand the full meaning of Henry David Thoreau's quote: "What you get by achieving you goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals". Never in my life did I think I could accomplish something as big and scary as a 26.2 mile race. I became more trusting in my capacity for mental toughness, more believing in my ability to tolerate intense physical pain, and more inspired by the importance of a team - my training partner, November Project fitness group, friends, family, and other runners. I became a focused and indestructible force. This year, I decided I wanted a more balanced approach to fitness so I set out to finish my very first triathlon and become more regimented in lifting weights. Signing up for the Upper Dublin Triathlon and a package of strength focused classes provided a built-in deadline for achieving my goals.
The ability to figure out what is not working for you and change your course of action is not intuitive. Check in with yourself regularly to gauge if you are on track to complete your goals. If not, decide if you need to push harder or change your approach completely. How often you do this is unique to each individual. Every year I get a little bit better at saying "no" to things I just don't have time for or don't want to do. My friends know this about me and as a result, it has strengthened my relationships. When I show up and commit to something it's because I genuinely want to be there and believe it aligns to my goals. Trust and sincerity build a strong foundation for social, family, and spiritual goals and therefore, I choose to attend those events that align best to my life. Consistently pushing to align your activities to your goals can feel exhausting. However, when you scan your calendar you can instantly feel reassured that the core meetings are happening by looking for your goals in your everyday life events: catching up with friends, coffee with a mentor, workout with a training partner, etc. These events are contributing to your progress and eventual success. So take a deep breath, be grateful for the time you have left in 2015, and realize that you are not too far off track at all.