What's Your Goal, And Why Haven't You Achieved It?

Apple Valley NEXT Leaders is a group under the umbrella of the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce of professionals ages 21-35. The group holds professional skill-building, networking and social events each month. For more information about joining, visit the NEXT Leaders website or email avnextleaders@gmail.com.

This blog post was written by group member Allison Wickler, the editor of Apple Valley-Rosemount Patch.  

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(D x V) + F > R

An algebra lesson? Not exactly.

On Wednesday, Apple Valley NEXT Leaders -- the new young professionals group under the umbrella of the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce -- held its first NEXT Growth event, where group leaders bring in an outside speaker to enlighten us on a particular business-related topic.

David Ford, a business coach with ActionCOACH brought us a presentation about thinking outside the box—something that I feel like is easy to WANT to do, but maybe a little harder to execute if you don’t really know where to start.

David provided quite a few practical pieces of advice and business strategies during his presentation, but I thought I’d highlight one part that resonated with me most, which goes back to that formula above.

Think of a goal you have.

• D represents your dissatisfaction with your current situation/not yet having achieved the goal.
• V is your vision for your future once you’ve achieved said goal.
• F is the first step you’d take to start working toward the goal.
• R is your resistance to achieving the goal.

What I got from it is that if you seem to have a lot of resistance to working toward a goal, then your dissatisfaction with your current situation must not be high enough. Basically, it seems easier not to achieve your goal and just stay where you’re at. So if you can find a way to increase your dissatisfaction (which does sound kind of weird at first), then you’ll become less resistant to working toward your goal.

David gave a pretty cute personal example of how he wanted to take his family to Disney World, but kept putting it off because it was easier to put it off than to make plans to go. Once he told his daughter about the plan to go to Disney World, he had to face her increasing sadness each day when he told her they couldn’t go yet, and that in turn increased his own dissatisfaction with the situation. Then he worked harder to ultimately get them to Disney World, and voila! Vacation. Goal achieved.

I thought this idea took a scenario that many people generally experience and understand and put it into something more measurable. And while I’m all about the beauty of words as a form of expression, I think it’s a solid strategy to attempt to turn those feelings into something measurable in a formula, so you can then try to measure your efforts and create a change. (Plus, it makes you sit down and say to yourself “Okay, what is my goal, exactly?”)

What are your own best tips for thinking outside the box you’ve created for yourself?