Few days back, I went to Northpoint to take a few sessions on Integrated Marketing Communication. I was going there for the first time. Didn't quite know what kind of students there were. So to get a measure, I did a few small exercises on their motivations in life. Indeed, discussion about goals is an obvious consequence of such exercises.
So, as the discussion progressed, this is what I discovered. And this is what I had to tell them about goal-setting. Goal should be such that it makes you,
Fill your time, not your space
What do I mean?
While reading their responses in those exercises, I realized that most of us try and define our goals in terms of what we want to own (great cars, great brands, big luxury products, etc.), where we want to reach (CEO/director of so-and-so company, owner of such-and-such business, etc.) and so on…
The thing is these are all objects. Car is an object. Luxury goods are objects. CEO is a certain position in the hierarchy; in a way it's a point/place, and therefore an object. Owning a certain business sounds like owning an object of sorts.
This is the point. Objects fill up space, not your time. So?
The fact that you have life means you'll have to live out a certain duration of time before you die. How do you fill the time till you live? By living! By breathing! By 'doing' something. And 'doing' is an activity. The thing is, only activities can fill up your time; nothing else.
Doing something (activities) forces you into experiences, builds your capabilities, hones your skills and develops your expertise. And it's the expertise that takes you places.
Sure, you might need objects to do certain activities. In that sense, you will have to use those objects. But mind you, the word is 'use'. Not 'own'. Ownership or achieving those objects isn't always the deal.
If you own objects, they'll fill your space. And they'll occupy that space till you want them to. But you don't have to live out space. You've to live out time. Until you use those objects, you don't fill your time. And filling your time is the bigger deal. If time doesn't get filled you'll be afflicted with the worst disease of life – boredom.
Goal should be an activity, not a position, not an object, not a place.
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