Which of the Following is Most Important when Setting Goals
Part 2 — Is ambition a good thing?
In this piece, I am going to dive into the modus operandi of the plan. It might not be your cup of tea but if you are reading this you might have certain personality traits that click with what I am about to share.
In Part 1, we discussed the idea that setting goals alone are not enough to get you (your biz, your team, your co) to where you need to go. Specifically, you might want to consider just how strong your (the) ambition is — to get you (biz, team, co) to achieve the goal.
Know thyself — We may have the intention to achieve a goal, but are we ambitious enough to create a plan?
It is really easy to get super motivated and get carried away writing a giant list of all the tasks we have to do, goals we hope to achieve, and things we wish to acquire. That’s great! Do it!
Get it all out of that grey matter we call the brain and onto a piece of paper (or digital whiteboard), and free up some space for what really matters!
Now you have done a big brain dump, how far do you hope to get through this checklist before changing your mind? Or getting distracted? Or being too busy with other things?
Ditch the list!
We have all written a big checklist of “things to do” only to get a few check-boxes in and then we bomb out!
Or maybe the checklist is like an itch that needs to be scratched, and we persist with the list that does not serve us!
To stay the course we need to dig deep, and we need to be bloody ambitious!
Ambition is the fuel you need to achieve the goal!
Have you ever truly reasoned with yourself about your ambitions?
Have High Ambitions!
This should be something you feel pretty strongly about. After all, you will need to come back to this time and time again when you feel like quitting or getting distracted by a shiny object. This is akin to your “Why”!
Cement the Goal Posts!
Now that you know your ambition, you can create a goal knowing you have a bloody good reason to achieve it!
Like me, you may be re-writing this over and over again, which I find helps cement the goalposts. I’ve literally done this 10x until I was satisfied with the result.
Take Aim!
Now, I like to set a specific intention to complete the goal, this is your tool of choice, the method to the madness, the “How” that will compliment your “Why”
Trust Yourself and Shoot
In archery, the archer creates energy by drawing the string on the bow. Then, the archer takes aim with an arrow and releases this built-up energy. If all of these components are perfectly aligned, bullseye!
The bow is merely a tool to shoot the arrow to the target. It does not work without the archer creating the energy by drawing the string of the bow.
Therefore, using this analogy;
Know the target (GOAL)
Use a bow (INTENTION)
Select the arrow — the task, the work, the project.
Create energy (AMBITION).
Aim, trust, shoot!
Being Careful With Your Selection
You can pick up arrows all day long but without the right tools, the energy, and the target, you just have a handful of arrows.
Now, this is where the fun begins. Remember in Part 1 where we discussed the Eisenhower Matrix?
Since you may already have a to-do list (a bunch of arrows of all shapes and sizes) we now have the means to select the finest, fastest, and most effective of arrows to win the game.
In this example (simplified for demonstration purposes), you can take each task/project and align it accordingly. Now that we have set our goal with a clear intention to achieve the goal-driven with strong ambition, its easy…
Start at the bottom left of the quadrant. Consider how much effort it will take to complete the task/project and move along the horizontal scale (if you are using a digital whiteboard tool, you can move these tiles around freely).
Next, move up the vertical scale to determine how much impact this task/goal will have (when considering your goal and ambition).
Repeat these steps for each task/project until you have finished with all the items on your list. You have now prioritised your activities for maximum efficacy.
3x Your Life by Design
This is where the rubber meets the road. So you have set an intention to achieve a goal that matches your ambitions. But what if you have more than 1 ambition? What if you can see yourself doing many things?
Rinse and Repeat the process x3
Why? Well, you just might find that going through this process a few more times will help you nail down your ambition and set better goals.
There is some evidence to suggest that this works really well. But don’t take my word for it…
Miro Makes This Easy
If this all sounds like a lot of effort then best quit while you’re ahead!
Kidding, don’t! The effort you put into curating your activities will be met with equal output. It’s worth the trouble!
Using a digital whiteboard like Miro makes this easy.
In summary, your ambition fuels the fire when planning your day, week, year… Or life!
It is possible to achieve your wildest dreams if you have the ambition to do so. Therefore, why not start by fully understanding what your true ambition is.
Then, the rest becomes the coordination of intentions and actions to achieve goals that support your ambition.
Written By Dave @ JustGo.Design
