Your Goals Have Problems

This is a good thing. After all, goals are really a description of how to overcome a problem. That problem is usually a gap between the current state, and the desired state. You are currently a Director and want to be Vice-President. That’s the gap and that’s the problem to be solved. Or you want to send your kids to college and don’t have the funds yet. You need to solve that problem, so you set a goal to do so.

Are your goals solving the right problems though? In the case of wanting to become a Vice-President for your company, what is the underlying problem you want to solve? Are you looking for prestige, more pay, or self-validation? If the problem is that you want more money, are there other ways to achieve that other than a promotion to VP which probably not only means more responsibility, but also a greater time commitment and more stress.

For funding your children’s college education, are there ways to reframe the problem in a way that presents other possibilities besides saving thousands of dollars over a period of time. Could the objective be framed as a desire for an advanced education and let funding options be open to scholarships, less expensive schools or having your child work part-time during school. If you step back and reframe the problem from even further back, should the objective even be a college education? What is the end state that you (and your child) really desire?

All of your goals are made to solve a problem you have or perceive you have. Sometimes it is important to examine the problem in detail, and reframe it before setting the goal.