Recently I was presenting to a business team on the topic of ‘Utilising adaptability to add value to your team’ and the theme of goals came up (again!). This is a common theme we encounter from others and a lived experience I have continued to navigate in my own life. From an early age we are taught that goals are what we must focus on if we wish to be successful.

 

As an insecure teen searching for a sense of identity and purpose, those goals for me were formed around my sport. Sport was the one place I felt I had value because of my determination and skill and what that could offer a team.

 

What experience has taught me since is that goals are a double edged sword, in that they can offer the elation of success and accomplishment, but they also come with the deep disappointment of what feels like failure when they aren’t met. I felt that when I tethered myself to my ambitious goals I was riding often a rollercoaster of emotions. When I succeed I may feel a temporary moment of accomplishment, but often I would be so focused of what my next goal would be that I would skip past celebrating to move onto the next goal I had in mind. Conversely, when I felt I had failed in my pursuit of a goal, I felt like an underachiever with no value to myself or those around me. This is a pattern I have heard repeated by other aspirational people in their journey of self growth and one that become a self limiting mindset, stymying their growth and satisfaction in life.

 

Just to clear things up, I am NOT suggesting the idea of goals aren’t useful at all, however they need to be put into context if we are to remain aspirational, while also feeling a sense of intrinsic value, independent of whether we achieve all of them or not. One thing I have found helpful in my life is to reframe the word ‘Goal’ into ‘Checkpoints’. I have chosen to create an ‘Optimal Vision’ of how I would like my daily experience of life to be/become and then I work my way backwards to establish the behavioural habits and set of values that aligns with the life I wish to live. In this model I view ‘Checkpoints’ as the meaningful progress I am making toward realising my “Optimal Vision".

 

In living this way I have removed one of the biggest constraints that limited how adaptable I could be in my self growth, as well as being kinder to myself along the way. I now get to celebrate these checkpoints more often and am not deflated by what may have previously felt like a failure. This has become possible due to perceived failures now being identified as new opportunities to be better informed and continue to learn. I now have a much greater sense of satisfaction on a daily basis because I am guided by a set of values that align with my optimal vision. I find myself living my optimal vision which brings more meaning to each day.

 

Coming back to the business team I was speaking with, I was pleased to hear team members became self aware of their own struggle with goals and the expectation they bring. It gave me heart to hear their willingness to open a discussion within their team around how they can refrain what goals mean to them. They have now set the intention to make celebrating a habit within their team.

 

 

If you’d like to learn more about Adaptability and how it can add value to your life, check out our podcast ‘The Adaptability Movement’ (coming soon) or contact us via our website www.theadaptabilitymovement.world to find out how we can practically advance the performance of your team.

 

Daniel Kirk

Co-Founder | The Adaptability Movement