What's
Your Goal?
By
Terry Houston, PP
I’m
a rolling stone, all alone and lost.
For a life of sin I have paid the cost.
When I pass by, all the people say,
Just another guy on the lost highway.
-
Hank Williams
Do
you ever feel like you’re drifting through life,
on some invisible lost highway? Millions of people live
from day to day with no thought of what the future might
bring, willing to roll with whatever life sends their
way. Is that the best way to live? Who’s to say?
Many
of us prefer to live “do-it-all, have-it-all” lives,
intent on achieving success in every facet. We’re
not content with being rolling stones but, at the same
time, we struggle and wonder whether we’ll ever
achieve that state of having it all. Sometimes we’re
not even sure how to tell when we’ve reached that
level we’re so intent on seeking. We get mired
down in the details and sometimes we get lost. It’s
a tough, cold road. But there’s a simple way to
overcome that lost feeling and achieve a sense of purpose.
Accomplish something. And that leads us to today’s
topic: setting goals.
It’s
a pretty popular subject these days. If you Google “goal
setting” on the Internet, you’ll get about
135 million hits. You’ll see websites for Personal
Goal Setting, Smart Goal Setting, Professional Goal Setting.
Some sites will tell you how to Go Beyond Goal Setting.
Others feature successful people and promise to reveal
their secrets for attaining high levels of success. Zig
Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Dale Smith Thomas… There
are thousands of them out there willing to sell their
secrets for a few hundred dollars plus shipping and handling.
But if you look closely at these successful folks, you’ll
notice that they have a common personality trait. All
of them will say at one point or another that they wanted what
they have today. This wanting is another way of acknowledging
that they set a goal for themselves.
We
all have goals in our minds but they’re not always
specific enough to put into words. They’re feelings
or dreams or vague notions of how we’d rather be
different in some way than we are today. One of life’s
most frustrating aspects is unrealized goals. So how
can we get past that? It helps to consciously think about
what our goals are and to write something down to help
define those goals. The best part of having a goal is
the feeling of satisfaction that you will get when you’ve
achieved a goal, no matter how small. Here’s what
works for me.
First,
think about what your goal actually is. The best goals
are the ones that are reasonable to attain because they
have the best chance of being achieved. It sounds like
doublespeak, but think about it. Notice I didn’t
say easy, just reasonable. It’s gratifying to see
a secretary like Colleen Barrett become President of
Southwest Airlines, but let’s face reality. There
aren’t many of those jobs around, so maybe most
of us would be better off aspiring to something a little
more realistic. What is it you really want out of your
job, your life, your marriage? Or, better yet, what can
you reasonably expect to achieve at your present
position? If you’re working as a legal secretary
now, perhaps you aspire to be promoted to a paralegal
position or maybe you’d like to become an attorney.
How do you get yourself out of the 9-to-5 rut and on
the road to success? SET A GOAL for yourself. Then write
it down.
There
are lots of ways to organize your goal-setting process.
Some people like notebooks, but they remind me too much
of work. I prefer index cards. They’re small, easy
to sort out and rearrange when I’m feeling reflective.
They fit nicely into those cute leather boxes from World
Market, but any container will do. On the first card,
write down the be-all, end-all Big Dream of your life.
Let’s say becoming an attorney is your Big Dream.
That’s a reasonable goal for a legal assistant.
Write “attorney” in big letters and put that
card at the back of the box. Now, think about the steps
involved in becoming an attorney. Most attorneys go to
law school, so write “law school” in big
letters on the second card and put that on top of the
first card. Wait… we forgot something. You don’t
go straight from law school to attorney; you have to
pass the bar exam first. So get another card and write “bar
exam” on it, and place it in the stack between “law
school” and “attorney.” How do you
get into law school? Take the LSAT? Get another card,
write “take LSAT” on it and add it to the
stack.
Do
you see the pattern here? Goals are simply a series of
steps, taken one by one, until you get to your Big Dream.
But that’s a little oversimplified, too. LSAT to
law school to bar exam to attorney may look great on
little paper cards, but in reality they’re pretty
big steps and the time between achievements is pretty
long. So let’s get a little more realistic in our
planning. I’ve found that the key to achieving
big goals is to break them down into small, here-and-now
steps. The Big Dream is out there but sometimes it’s
too big or too far away to get our arms around in one
moment or two and, if we concentrate only on the Big
Dream, our frustration meter might peg out before we
get there. Always remember that the satisfaction you
get from achieving is just as important as the goal itself.
Don’t ever deny yourself that satisfaction. You’ve
earned it and you deserve it, so take a minute (or a
day or a week) to luxuriate in the feeling.
So,
you want to sit for the LSAT? Well, find out where and
when the exam is administered. Write those details down
on a card and add it to the front of the box. Then reflect
on the fact that you’ve just achieved a step to
your goal. Pat yourself on the back, take yourself out
to lunch, whatever. Just DO SOMETHING to acknowledge
to yourself that you’ve accomplished a step in
reaching your goal.
Next,
find out if there’s an education requirement or
a recommended study guide. Write that down on a card
and add it to the front of the box. And so on. You get
the picture.
But
we’re not alone in this life. We have family and
social obligations to think about, too, and sometimes
it’s pretty overwhelming to juggle all of them
at once. So how do we keep everybody happy, including
ourselves? Set reasonable goals and try to keep
the goal in mind as the day progresses. Are you stuck
photocopying deposition exhibits when you’d rather
be drafting the interview questions? It will help to
remember what your goal was in coming to work this morning.
Most of us hold full-time jobs for income to support
our lifestyle. That’s our goal, for today at least,
isn’t it? Be honest with yourself. It makes life
easier.
Write
your lifestyle goals down, too. Merge them in with the
other goals so you don’t unintentionally shortchange
yourself in one area at the expense of the other. Colored
index cards work well for this. Maybe your work-related
cards are green, the family cards pink, and the hobby
cards yellow, but the process is the same. Start with
your Big Dream, then work backwards breaking the steps
down until you get to one thing that you
can do today, here and now. Then do that one thing and
reward yourself for having completed it, even if all
you do is say out loud to yourself in the car on the
way home from work, “I’m a success today.
I achieved my goal.”
About
the author: Terry Houston, PP, a NALS life member,
was a legal secretary for seven years in Phoenix, Arizona,
most recently with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. She retired
in 2005 and moved with her husband and two dogs to
West Texas to pursue a lifelong dream. Today, she is
enrolled in the Commercial Music program at South Plains
College, where she plays Dobro in the Country and Bluegrass
Band Ensembles.
