What If Your Goal Is as Easy as Moving in the Direction of That Goal, Dream, or Idea?

It can be as easy as moving in the direction of…

Have you ever read or heard something right at the exact moment you needed to hear the message? That’s been happening a lot to me lately.

The latest experience of this sort happened just yesterday.

If I were to tell you the opening line of that message was, “You and I know the importance of setting a goal, Jeff,” I’d run you off in a mere seventy-five words. And I’d never do that, at least not intentionally.

So, back to the story. I was getting my day started with a good mug of coffee and perusing my inbox. (By the way, one of those is considered a bad way to start your day and many misguided souls believe the other is too. I’ll leave you with that to ponder for a while).

One of the few interesting and useful emails in my queue was Rob Hatch’s weekly newsletter. Rob is the co-founder and President of Owner Media Group, and a sought-after business coach and advisor. Rob usually has some good thoughts to consider and get your brain thinking, even if it does happen to be about goals. This one didn’t floor me right away. But it got my wheels turning about my own situation.

My current goals are fairly straightforward…

1. Get the “household goods” unpacked and all the boxes flattened and off to the recycling center.
2. Begin the journey of settling into our new home.
3. Take a big sigh of relief.

If you’re reading a lack of definition between the lines, I guess I’m guilty as charged. 

And that’s the whole point of what I learned in Rob’s newsletter.

I don’t know about you, but much of the contemporary wisdom about goals works only some of the time—and sometimes it just plain gets in the way. What do you think?

Here’s what Rob says:

For some people, being told to get specific with their goals impedes taking action. Choosing what, how, and how often can cause uncertainty, and so they do nothing at all.”

Has that ever happened with you? Contemporary wisdom says you should use a tool, such as SMART, to define specific goals. Maybe you’re just not ready to nail things down that much. But you still want to move forward. In that case, this might be a time when going through a popular tool like setting a SMART goal may not be the right thing to do just now.

The problem shows up when you don’t have all the pieces figured out AND you know you want to move forward.

So, Rob says:

I’m not knocking the value of these exercises and the specificity it brings. Sometimes, however, we just need enough information to take action and make progress.”

In other words…

Moving in the direction of…

Right now, I’m kind of taking Rob’s advice without actually knowing it. If I look again at the goals I so cavalierly stated above, I’m really not that far off for my current situation.

I actually do have some solid goals in mind for the next few years. The direction is clear to me. All the final details are not, but they will be soon. In the meantime, I’m moving in that direction. Toward my ultimate goals which I’ll be sharing as I move in that direction, once the boxes are unpacked and we’re settling in.

If I take a look back, I sure wish I had been armed with this simple perspective… to move in the direction of something that I knew I was interested in, just a little unsure in the clarity department.

As we both know, living in the past or with regret isn’t healthy. The point is to learn the lessons and grow from those experiences.

So, Rob’s newsletter article wrapped it up with this:

Action can often reveal options, and the clarity of our goals can come into focus along the way. We don’t need to have everything dialed in first.

Move in the direction of your destination. Gain some ground. Let things come into focus and adjust as you go.”

Thanks, Rob… we needed that!

So think about moving in the direction of your dreams by starting with just one thing. And remember, you don’t have to have everything figured out. You just need to take confident steps in that direction.

You’ve got this.

Be untucked.

p.s. Know someone who might like this post? Maybe forward it or share it on your favorite social media platform. Thanks!

p.p.s. Fair warning, if you check out Rob Hatch—you get a fair amount of marketing and other businessy sort of stuff. You can sign up for his newsletter on his website.

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