Continuing from where I had left that is my thoughts on success triangle , I had mentioned that to be
successful one ought to continue stretching the three arms/ sides of the triangle that is Knowledge,
Attitude and Skill so that the area under it goes up and u are more successful in life to live your
dreams. Now coming to Goal setting , have u been a football player anytime in the past? At least seen/
heard of a football match? Whoever is associated with this game has his favorite team and mentally he
is an active player on the ground (even if he is munching popcorn sitting on the sofa a couch potato
watching the match). He is completely charged up and true to the competitive spirit, whenever his
favorite team does well, he feels nice and all those happy hormones are secreted in plenty in his body
they call it Dopamine or something like that…. Similarly whenever his favorite team player misses the
ball or a pass or a goal he curses and feels extremely sad and immediately the sad hormones are
secreted in plenty I do not remember what it is called…..
Well , I am not a medical expert but I have taken the analogy to write this blog on Goal setting, the ball
reaches closer to the opponent teams goal post and there is an excitement in the mind as if he is the
star player of this favorite team on the ground , in the thick of the action and he is actively shifting the
ball and in his mind as per the already chalked out strategy to score the goal. The excitement is at its
peak when a Goal is scored and half the audience (dressed in team T shirts as if there is a requirement to
replace a player of their favorite team all of them are going to be the first choice for replacement) .
Whenever the goal is scored half the stadium shouts “Goal” and the other half maintains a pin drop
silence as if their world has come to an end. Such frenzy is seen even in cricket. Well, I am describing this
because it has prompted me to blog on Goal setting.
What is a goal? My thoughts say it is the guiding light with a direction, a force, which enables one to
take a call on calibrating the effort to move Efficiently (function of time) and Effectively (function of right
action or contributing action) to reach where one has planned to reach, now on lets call it “Goal”.
Coming back to game of football and Goal setting to decide the parameters of a your Goal, I ask myself a
question ( well I learn this phrase watching lawyers in a courtroom) how many spectators will come to
witness a match having say 100 + players in each team, lets make it a match of infinite or say 3-day
duration match, goal post of say 2 km + each side. Will one have the same excitement what one had
when he shouted “GOAL” in the conventional goal post of 18 feet wide. With match duration of 45 min
each half and only 11 players. I leave it to your imagination and a sane verdict on the question.
So Goal has to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable/ Reachable, Realistic (relating to ones ability there
is no point setting an impossible goal beyond human abilities) and finally Time bound . I would call it
SMART. Off course I would add that it ought to be challenging as well.
More on Types of Goal in my next Blog.
