Building a Plan Around Three Types of Goals

Goals and goal setting are as timeworn as another new year cycle around the sun. This year, makes your goals more achievable through a mindful and process oriented approach. Pete Vordenberg has your back on this.

I come from a world of competition. Over time I became disillusioned. Competition was a world I wrote off, and a word I began to despise. But I’ve come back, not to competing, but to acknowledging the lessons that can be learned from a life of competition. Among them are how we set about our journeys and adventures, how we can shape our efforts and gain much from attempting them. I came back to the lessons of competition because rather than learn to conquer something or win any prizes they are valuable in helping to increase our growth and enjoyment through sport.  Many of these lessons come through the process of trying to accomplish goals. Goals can include things like skiing something new and harder than you’ve done before, or winning an event, or learning new skills so you can safely ski with your buddies.

Many people’s distaste for goals comes from the notion that you must become single mindedly fixated on the accomplishment.  I do not subscribe to an outcome focus. A process focus is not only the best way to actually accomplish your goal, but it is the best way to learn, grow and maximally enjoy along the way.

Three types of goals

Planning begins with the goal and works backwards.

How will you arrive at your goal ready to accomplish it? What qualities and attributes will you need to develop to accomplish your goal, and by what means will you develop them?

Goal setting and training or learning planning requires a knowledge of, and honesty with yourself.

You must start where you are.

Setting goals is an act between dreaming and planning. Dreaming of something you would like to do is fun. To actually set out to live that dream requires you set a goal to accomplish it, and accomplishing it requires a plan, a path, a way to get there. The plan is the path. At one end is the goal, at the other your current position on the path.

The goal at the far end of your plan is not the final goal. Typically once the big goal is accomplished the shine wears off pretty quickly and you are looking for the next peak before your first celebratory beer is even drained.

Nor is it the only goal along the way.