After the excitement of thinking about a new year and all the grand things we imagine giving our energy to and producing thrilling outcomes, the real work begins. Does it feel like climbing a sheer rock face? As new clients come to work with me for executive development, improving productivity, strengthening leadership, and restoring joy and satisfaction professionally, I continually hear their disappointment mixed with grit to double down and push harder in the new year. They expressed resolve to make the challenging goals they missed last year a reality in this new year. A quick Google search brings up a JAN 2023 study by the University of Scranton that shows that 92% of people don’t fulfill their New Year’s goals. The story goes on to describe the importance of creating concrete goals and creating detailed action plans. The acronym SMART associated with goals is written about in thousands of books as a formula for success: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Yet, 92% of people fail. It’s just one study. Yet, my experience and what I hear from clients each year support that SMART isn’t sufficient. So, you might ask, what is adequate?
When I was in a corporate leadership role, goal setting and creating plans to drive results was both science and art. We must sustain our attention on the finish line by controlling for distractions and the unexpected occurring through discipline and ruthless focus. That worked well to generate outcomes. I noticed, however, that the relationship element, sometimes viewed as the intangible and “artful” element of why teams do and don’t deliver as planned, was far more critical than articulating the outcome. Inspecting progress had an associated cost to the climate in the workplace that I found unproductive. Once introduced to professional coaching and the mindset for being generative, I learned to value that relationship element as far more than intangible; the day-to-day experience with my team became the secret to fulfilling goals and sustaining excellence and enthusiasm for the team. The core principle I’ve used now for nearly three decades with clients provides insight into the secret.
Commit to the destination and embrace the spontaneous journey.
You likely recognize two parts to this principle. You might even notice a synonym for the long-held belief that to create something valuable; we must set a goal and then build a plan to achieve it. The words in the principle introduce a different vibration. Destination contains the goal, potential, and desired experience when we fulfill the goal. When that desire flows strongly within us, commitment strengthens and focuses our choices. The journey contains the plan and the movement metaphor from one place to the next. With movement, the unpredictable occurs, inviting us to embrace spontaneity rather than control for a variable that throws off the plan. The principle evokes more openness and freedom to be with all that occurs around us. We can recognize that plans held more softly allow for more fulfilling surprises and, often, more empowering and energizing to be recognized and incorporated.
Let’s make this practical to change the exertion of climbing the sheer rock mountain into exploring the expansive view from the mountain top. Which sensation and emotion do you prefer: exertion and risk or expansion and magnificence? Are you the kind of person who only values outcomes achieved through hard work? There is another way.
I assume that you have set some goals for the coming year. Hopefully, you feel positive energy about at least one of those goals. Follow this set of steps with the one goal you feel most optimistic about.
- Take a moment now and look at what you wrote down as the goal statement so you have the words memorized.
- Close your eyes and bring your attention inside of you. Speak that goal inside your head (silent outside), listening to yourself express.
- Notice what sensations and emotions occur.
- If you don’t notice anything, speak the goal again, increase the volume inside your head, and maybe try it faster or slower. Each time you talk about the goal, continue to notice what occurs.
- When you notice sensations and emotions, open your eyes and jot down those words.
Sensations and emotions noticed by turning your attention inside yourself become the ingredients for commitment, a commitment to yourself, not anyone else. In this way, you set an intention: the inspired experience – felt emotionally and sensed physically – that you desire. When you declare intent this way and speak it aloud in the present tense, you invite yourself to recognize it occurring even before it does outside of you. Everything in life occurs first in our imagination. An intention statement supports you in imagining the destination as a more desirable experience than now, emotionally, and physically. That statement supercharges commitment. That statement also produces wonder, the rapt attention on what you find astonishing and inspiring. Your rapt attention recognizes spontaneous actions that fit precisely with what you desire. Intention supports you to be the cause and agent of your experience.
Now, back to the mountain journey. You will not likely attempt to climb the sheer rock face without preparation. We’ll assume for now that you are physically fit and know how to be on belay with a climbing partner. Before you begin, you set an intention statement that might be something like, “I am power filled in my body to climb expansively toward the magnificent beauty my imagination sees on top of this mountain.” The statement expresses the inspired experience as power-filled to climb (sensation) and magnificent beauty (emotion). You fulfill your desire by climbing expansively toward the top of the mountain (destination). Using intention statements to fuel commitment for achieving goals is like putting nitroglycerin into a racing car to go faster than the limit. While similar to choosing positive self-talk, an intention statement adds the motivational element, inside-out, to journey toward the goal using all parts of the human experience: mind (the goal), body (sensation), heart (emotion), and spirit (imagined destination). Experiment with the goal you feel most positive about by writing an intention statement – notice it is in the “I” voice and the present tense (not future tense, i.e., I will, or I am willing). Here’s one more example as a model: I revel in writing blogs that inspire commitment to manifest love in every choice.