Goals
In the workplace, management often talks about goals,
whether accomplishing an important project in a timely manner, outbidding
competitors to land a profitable contract, increasing the workforce by 10%, or
maximizing this year’s profit to mollify the shareholders. Generally a project can be divided into
short-range goals and long-range goals (also known as short-term and
long-term).
For example, if you are part of a team working on a new
suite of software which is necessary to support a hardware upgrade scheduled to
occur in 6 months, then the project is broken down into demonstrable steps,
also known as milestones. The
short-range goals are the achievement of each of those steps in a manner
consistent with the overall project schedule. The long-range goal is to achieve success in writing
operational software in time to support the upgrade. Management’s role throughout this process is to ensure that
the project adheres to the agreed-upon schedule within the budget provided, to
make sure that the people working on the project have the information,
training, and materials that they require, to act as a liaison between the
workers and the customer, and to resolve any personnel issues.
So goals in the workplace are common and familiar to us. But what about goals in our personal
lives? As children, our parents
act as the management team, guiding us and setting our goals and
expectations. One of our
long-range plans as children, then, is to gain an education; passing each grade
becomes a short-range goal.
Breaking those down further, passing a test becomes an even
shorter-range goal. And so
on.
Time passes and so you grow up and move away from your
parents. Sometimes they still act
as your management team, calling and offering advice on what you should
do. But at some point, you will
take over your own management function.
Then you will begin setting your own goals. In the early years, those goals might be to get a job or
find a spouse. Later on, maybe you
set goals of exercising more and eating healthier or quitting smoking.
It may be that you aren’t aware of any long-term goals in
your life. You have been living in
a fixed pattern for so long that it seems to have no end. All you are aware of are the short-term
goals of daily life. You wake up,
fix breakfast for the family, get the kids off to school, see your husband off
to work, do the household chores, do the shopping, decide what to fix for
dinner, and so forth. Each day
much the same. If someone asks you
about your long-range goals, what could you say?
Now might be the time to think about things you’d like to
try but never had the time or opportunity. Even if you still don’t have the time or opportunity,
someday you will. Wouldn’t it be
nice to look forward to that time with the idea in mind that you could take
piano lessons or learn to paint? Maybe write children’s stories? If you feel that you’re “too
old” to learn anything new, then take heart from the example of Grandma Moses
who took up painting in her seventies.
You are never too old to be amazing!
Have a great week!
Kevin
Reminder: If you are unsure about the meaning of the
idioms used in this message, please refer to "Idioms, Figures of Speech,
and Proverbs" posted on this blog in August 2013. An alternative is
to look at http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com
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