Continuing from where I left on the Goal story ……., each human being is different; accordingly, the individual needs are also different. Before addressing the goal setting lets briefly ponder what is a need and how do we approach this aspect of “need fulfilment”. Again, it brings me back to Sir Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, well, the basic needs are to see that we survive (The first and most essential GOAL), ok, so far so good, what’s next basic need when your tummy is full you want to secure your next day and not want to be going hunting again so, we look for security of food and we stock up so that we have more time to socialize and rise to a higher mental plane as compared to those of birds and animals. So, we have a collaborative approach in securing safety and security of food. This leads to security goal with elements like physical security , financial security , social security and the list is endless.
This brings me to the types of Goals. Each individual is different, and is shaped intrinsically by his unique genetic setup, by external factors like social setup, good and bad experiences etc… Accordingly, what is insufficient for one may be in excess for another person. Before getting engrossed in this debate of how much is good enough for an individual to satiate his personal need, Let me assume the reader of this blog to be an average person with dreams to travel wherever he pleases, for the duration he chooses, freedom to meet people and see places of his choice, live a decent life wherein he is assured that he has adequate money to have own home and family.
So the Goals could be Financial goal (Say I will earn Rs 5 Lakhs by 31 Dec), Health Goal (rather than saying I will be fit, say I will reduce my weight by 5 Kg by 31 Dec (Be realistic and know your capabilities rather than your trainers capabilities, lest you land up in hospital and you need to set another goal to pay the hospital for you and also the monthly charges of the Gym trainer). Academic goals (say I will read /analyse 10 books before the year ends.) I will complete 100 registrations ( say in a service sector providing any service). Similarly, we may have spiritual goal, Social Goals of serving the people in whatever way one can. (Remember the characteristics of Goal I mentioned in my earlier blog). The list of Goals may be specified accordingly. I have just listed a few common to all the people.
In my next blog I will try to analyze as to why we fail in achieving it. Important to note and ponder will be to see “how we communicate with the environment”, well communication is and will remain the most important factor determining your success. So, in my next blog I will try to understand all about communication, as I feel trying to find the reasons of failure of achieving the Goal. Without touching NLP understanding communication is a futile effort. So, keep your eyes on this space.