Logical and Psychological Approaches to Goal Setting

In an uncertain, rapidly changing climate, goals often are as slippery and mercurial as they are critical. They often defy short-term definition let alone engagement and capture. And survival reality is simple, if not stark: key aspects of conventional goal-setting strategy must adapt or become outmoded and out-dated.

Ironically, the approach needed may involve getting out of your “success” goal box. Remember, sometimes reflexively relying on our niche of success (if not resting on our laurels) ultimately can have you stuck in the ditch of excess. How do you negotiate this critical crossroad?

Frequently, the challenge is to move outside your comfort zone, explore the new or transitional landscape (and mindscape) and to “Confront Your Intimate FOE: Fear of Exposure.” Consider these steps for blending rational goal-setting and creative risk-taking, four keys to “The Art of Designing Disorder”:

1. Aware-ily Jump in Over Your Head. When it come to productive risk-taking, don’t “Just do it!” Notice the above neologism: “Aware-ily” – a mix of aware and warily. Still, sometimes the only way to truly test the temperature and water current is to finally jump in. (Of course, as we’d say in the bayou, first check for alligators.) The value of emersion is that you quickly learn your strengths along with gaps in social and technical resources, skills, emotional hardiness and experience. You will likely have to dance with performance anxiety and feelings of loss of control. And while often humbling, taking the plunge surely sharpens focus and imaginative gifts while motivating maximum survival effort.

2. Strive to Survive the High Dive. While there are no guarantees, here are four survival measures:
a. Strive high and embrace failure. Forego perfectionist voices and fantasies; see so-called failure as the temporary gap and transitional space between an ideal state and your present reality. Of course, for failure to motivate progress, distinguish among high expectation, vision and hallucination.
b. Develop a realistic time frame. Remember, establishing a beachhead doesn’t mean you’ve conquered the island; recognize that many battles are fought and lost before a major undertaking is won
c. Be tenaciously honest. If the pressure is getting to you, come up for air and for an ear. Continuously assess the impact of actions and outcomes, the changes within yourself and your environment, and the rules underlying your operation.
d. Establish a support system. Risk-takers definitely need some TLC: “Tender Loving Criticism” and “Tough Loving Care” for staying the labyrinthine course, managing the stress of edgy living (“Hey, if you’re not living on the edge you’re taking up way too much space”), and for bathing psychic, if not physical wounds.

3. Thrive On Thrustration. Become more problem-minded, not just solution-oriented; don’t rush to judgment. Be a psychic volcano. For awhile, tolerate the conflict between thrusting ahead with direct action and frustration, that fertile state yet volatile state of “thrustration.” Heightened pressure and a “no exit” challenge can shake the habituated, settled mind. And then, learn to let go. With these steps you are feeding the creative fires and priming the imaginative, emotive and visual right hemisphere of your brain. So take an “incubation vacation” to hatch a new perspective. Be ready for an upsurge of repressed memories, novel images and associations and, possibly, an “Aha!” explosion. Remember, problems are not just sources of tension and frustration, but are opportunities for integrating the past and the present, the conscious and the unconscious, the obscure and the obvious. Here lies creative perspective.

4. Design for Error and Opportunity. Innovative and risk-taking individuals and organizations are more attuned to a range of possibilities than to “one right way” or rigidly ideal goals. These systems initiate action without absolute predesign predictability and prefer experimentation to preoccupation over imperfection. Having the courage to flounder through a sea of novelty and confusion often yields new connections, long-range mastery and an uncommon big picture. A narrow, safe course creates the illusion of achievement and short-lived control. Of course, limited predesign means opportunity for errors. In open people and systems, startup misplays are vital signs for self-correcting and self-challenging feedback.
With these keys in mind, a closing message, if not passage, for valuing both the destination and the journey:

Remember, errors of judgment or design rarely consign one to a state of incompetence; they more likely reveal inexperience or immaturity, perhaps even boldness. Our so-called "failures" can be channeled as guiding streams (okay, sometimes raging rivers) of opportunity and experience that ultimately enrich – widen, deepen and expand – the risk-taking passage...If we can just immerse ourselves in these unpredictably roiling yet so often rejuvenating waters.

Here’s to double-edged and cutting-edged goal setting!

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is an acclaimed keynote and kickoff speaker and "Motivational Humorist" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN speaking and workshop programs. In addition, the "Doc" is a team building and organizational development consultant for a variety of govt. agencies, corporations and non-profits and is AOL's "Online Psychohumorist" ™. Mark is an Adjunct Professor, No. VA (NOVA) Community College and currently he is leading "Stress, Team Building and Humor" programs for the 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry Divisions, Ft. Hood, Texas. A former Stress and Conflict Consultant for the US Postal Service, the Stress Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress and of The Four Faces of Anger. See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com -- called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.