On setting goals for the new year
In a few days, we will usher in a new year and for many, the new year offers an opportunity to start afresh, make resolutions, dust up forgotten goals we made the year before and try again.
I don’t remember when I started to question the yearly ritual of goal setting, it might have been out of the frustration of constantly abandoning them after a few months in the new year or as the painful reminder of unaccomplished goals that stare one in the face at the start of a new year.
Perhaps, instead of merely setting goals as we normally do each year, why don’t we take stock of the ones we made in previous years and interrogate why they fell by the wayside? Instead of whipping out a new journal and making grand plans, why don’t we pick up the old one and carefully examine what went wrong? Why don’t we rollover goals that we made in the past and keep them as objectives that we need to work towards.
One other issue I have with “setting goals” is the what next question. So, what happens after that goal has been met? I think there is a lot of fixation on the goal and not the process. The process is much more important than the goal itself. When we set a “goal” to achieve something or to become better at something, what have we learnt about ourselves in the process to achieving this goal.
I remember after examinations in school, a few friends and I would discuss what we did right and what we didn’t do well. We discussed alternative solutions to the problems that we could have taken and how to avoid failure in the next semester. I do recall that it was very painful process and someone refers to it as tortuous exercise. Indeed, it was. It wasn’t/isn’t pleasant to over one’s errors but it is necessary.
The benefit of retrospection is clarity. Clarity on how to do things better. Clarity on how to do things differently and clarity on what to avoid.
I am not advocating avoiding goal setting altogether but to shift focus from just the goal to the process in attaining the goal.
Wishing you a happy and productive new year.