Have you ever noticed how obsessed children can become with an activity? Whether it’s a sport or hobby, they appear to think about nothing else day or night. It becomes their singular focus and they are definitely ‘all in’ in terms of it.
Whether their vision is to play for their favourite sports team, to become an international show jumping champion or a professional gamer, they not only dream, but they dream BIG!
How is this?
It is because they are using the creative part of their brain. They develop almost instinctively a dream or vision of what they want to achieve and don’t impose any imagined restrictions on themselves.
Having vision and dreams are exciting, motivating and allow you to truly explore your potential.
Fast forward to adulthood where we gradually replace ‘vision’ and ‘dreams’ that allow us to use the creative part of the brain with the setting of ‘goals’ which relates to the rationale part of the brain.
In a previous blog that I wrote titled ‘Avoid the paralysis of perfection: Set Goals that excite!’, I explained that setting SMART goals that are specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time contained while useful, is also quite dull and does little in terms of stretching our capability. Yet today, this is the most widely adopted approach by individuals, teams and organisations.
SMART goals are often uninspiring and conservative, a box ticking exercise so that individuals and teams can demonstrate that they are ‘getting the job done’. But in reality what is really being achieved?
Do you find the goals that you work so hard on today to be exciting, motivating and that they truly allow you to explore your potential?
The likely answer for most, is unfortunately likely to be ‘no’.
Often the goals that we follow are set by someone else and their expectations in terms of performance are influenced significantly by their own perception of us, their own bias, limited beliefs and motivations.
Remember, that goal setting is not inherently bad but should never be used to the exclusion of developing a vision or allowing individuals, teams and organisations to dream.
The challenge for modern organisations is to combine all of these elements, to foster creativity and create workplaces that excite, motivate and inspire individual and collective potential.
Joe McDonald, create10 Founder provides one to one professional coaching in person, by phone or online; impactful workshops that simply make organisations better and affordable accessible online courses. create10 is currently offering 10% off all online courses and workshops. Please use coupon ‘thankyou10’ at checkout or upon booking. Check out www.create10.ie for further information or email info@create10.ie