Setting Goals

Setting goals, whether in your professional or personal life, can be a tricky task. By definition, most goals define something that you lack (e.g. I want to get in good shape, I want to have a million dollars, I want to attain a 50% market share) and I worry that when focusing on what one is not, a person may miss out on opportunities arising from what one is. Furthermore, it’s easy to become goal-bound, which is to say, so obsessed with a particular vision of the future that one loses perspective on other present opportunities.

Goal-setting advisors recommend so-called SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented and Time-bound). This approach certainly makes sense for certain types of goals, but also seems a bit mechanistic. Between the setting of a goal and its attainment, one can be certain that changes will intervene. This theme was recently explored by David Brooks of the New York Times in his article "The Summoned Self" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/opinion/03brooks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20summoned%20self&st=cse ).

In his column, Mr. Brooks contrasts the “Well-Planned Life” with the “Summoned Life,” which he describes as:

This mode of thinking [the “Summoned Life”] starts from an entirely different perspective. Life isn’t a project to be completed; it is an unknowable landscape to be explored. A 24-year-old can’t sit down and define the purpose of life in the manner of a school exercise because she is not yet deep enough into the landscape to know herself or her purpose. That young person — or any person — can’t see into the future to know what wars, loves, diseases and chances may loom. She may know concepts, like parenthood or old age, but she doesn’t really understand their meanings until she is engaged in them.

Moreover, people who think in this mode are skeptical that business models can be applied to other realms of life. Business is about making choices that maximize utility. But the most important features of the human landscape are commitments that precede choice — commitments to family, nation, faith or some cause. These commitments defy the logic of cost and benefit, investment and return.

The person leading the Well-Planned Life emphasizes individual agency, and asks, What should I do?” The person leading the Summoned Life emphasizes the context, and asks, “What are my circumstances asking me to do?”

In the Summoned Life, values rather than specific goals act as the polestar to guide one’s actions. I would suggest that melding Summoned Life values with meaningful, yet adaptable goals from the Well-Planned Life yields a powerful combination.

The purpose of a goal is to allow a person to figure out what to do next to make the most beneficial use of one's time, energy and attention. How do we identify what to do in the face of an unknowable future, rapidly changing circumstances, and ambiguous conditions? Perhaps we listen to the advice of Jose Raul Capablanca, the early 20th century international chess champion, who, when asked how many chess moves ahead he looked while playing a game, responded: "Only one, but it's always the right one."