Balancing Achievement And Happiness In Seeking Personal Success
Being goal oriented is one possible asset in achieving success
in any field. It does not ensure success, but I have no doubt
that it can be a very useful tool. I used it as a development
tool when I was an employee, and for the past ten years have set
my own personal objectives in whatever it is that I have done
for my own business.
Setting goals and objectives is like setting out a route on a
map before you set off on a journey. To get from A to D you have
to go via B and C first, and you may set target times for those
interim destinations in order to arrive at D in the allotted
time. Business and personal goals can be much the same.
You may, for an example, start a business whose products you
want to be distributed nationally, say the whole of the UK. But
to achieve that, you may recognize that you first have to
establish a local market, and that can become your first goal.
Next, when you have perfected the distribution locally, your
goal becomes a regional distribution network, say South East
England. As each goal is successfully achieved, it lays the
foundation for the next. Distribution to all of England, then
Wales and so on until the whole of the UK is covered.
A business, of course, has many essential elements, all of which
can be subject to their own goals. Financial goals are
important, as are product development and market share goals.
They are part of a planning process which acknowledges the fact
that you cannot go from nowhere, to being the top company in any
market, without various essential achievements along the way.
I like to compare goal setting to building a skyscraper. That
involves very detailed planning based on a vision by the
architect, and then the building taking shape from the
foundations up. Each floor is not completed until the structure
below is sound and ready. Can you put up a building roof first?
No, of course not. You would need to mix extreme impatience with
ultimate stupidity to do such a thing. This comparison is worth
remembering as you plan for your own success, whether it is as
an employee, as a business owner, or in your personal life.
Plan, make some firm foundations, then build one floor at a
time. Each floor can be a goal; the completed skyscraper your
vision of your own success.
Being goal oriented, though, does set its own traps for you.
Focusing entirely on the next goal can turn it into an obsession
that starts to override your personal life, and eventually your
own happiness. Any career or business goals do need to be in
balance with your personal existence. There is not much point in
achieving each of your goals, when each one takes you further
from your children, your spouse and your friends. You may end up
with your skyscraper complete, but no occupants with whom to
share. The end result could be worthless as you find yourself
estranged from those who were close to you.
It is possible to marry your goals with your family and your own
happiness. When you envision what you are trying to achieve, try
to incorporate in that vision your closest family and friends.
Try to include in that vision the way of life you will want to
emerge at the time each separate goal is achieved, and when the
final objective is complete. If your personal life becomes an
integral part of the objectives and goals you set, then the end
result will naturally be balanced, and you will be far happier
for it; so will your family.