Got a Goal? Embrace Ambiguity at the Outset
Setting an ambitious goal can be so damn easy.
Staying on the path to relentlessly chase after that goal, though, can be so damn challenging.
And therein lies the deception of goals: we anticipate the goal-chasing process to be as streamlined from the outset as the goal-setting process.
The goal-chasing process, though, is an ambiguous mess, especially at the outset.
Over time, often without much thought, we develop a system of activities, behaviors, and habits in our lives that contribute to our story. On a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and sometimes year-to-year basis, we consistently engage in these activities, behaviors, and habits.
In doing so, they work their magic to carve out our story.
We just don’t pay attention to this process.
When we set a goal and try to chase after it, though, we become acutely aware of our activities, behaviors, and habits.
And it’s easy for us to perceive failure when we don’t adhere to a strict pattern of new activities, behaviors, and habits.
A strict plan when setting a new goal does us no good.
We have to allow our system to breathe.
I believe that we set goals in hopes of telling a different story.
This may be a brand new story or a serious enhancement to our current story.
Either way, I believe that we set goals to tell a story we’ve always known that we could be telling because we know, deep down, that we possess the skills and abilities to tell that story.
And, just like we allowed time and consistent practice to guide us to the point we are at when we decide to set a goal, we need to allow time and consistent practice to work their magic to streamline our goal-chasing process so that we can create a different story.
Goal achievement is simply about developing a new system of consistent activities, behaviors, and habits over time that eventually lead to success.
We can serve ourselves by realizing that there are a host of moving parts within this system that we need to work with and organize over time.
Trying to be too rigid at the outset is a recipe for disaster.
Anticipating and embracing ambiguity, especially at the outset, can work wonders.
Action Steps
After setting your goal, rather than force strict adherence to a plan, simply identify all the things—the activities, behaviors, and habits—that you need to do on a regular basis to achieve your goal. Write these activities, behaviors, and habits down. These are your moving parts. At the outset, you don’t know how they go together
When you start going after your goal, simply try doing one of those things on the first day.
On the next day, do the same thing. Or, pick another moving part from your list and try that one.
Repeat this process the next day.
And the next.
The Magic of Consistent Practice and Time
Rather than focusing on the plan, be consistent with your practice of the activities, behaviors, and habits on a day-to-day basis.
Build those days of practice into a week of practice.
Build that week of practice into weeks of practice.
Build those weeks of practice into a month of practice.
While doing this, pay attention to patterns that naturally develop:
What days work well for certain activities, behaviors, and habits?
What times work well for certain activities, behaviors, and habits?
As you progress in an ambiguous system, you will start to discover a new system that works for you and you’ll increase your likelihood of relentlessly chasing after your goal.
“At any moment we can choose to shift our relationship to time and work with the grain, knowing of its existence and power. With the element of time working for us, we can reverse the bad habits and passivity, and move up the ladder of intelligence.” —Robert Greene, Mastery