GOOOOOAL! Keeping Yourself on the Path in Your Life's Journey

Many people believe that future success depends on creating a precise vision of exactly what you’ll be doing with your life by a defined time in the future – for example, “In 10 years I’ll be the Talent Management Director for a Fortune 500 retail company.”

I’ve always questioned whether this near-mandate of “you must have a specific goal” is a universal truth, for two primary reasons:

1) Setting such a specific goal usually involves making a future projection based on current realities. Who knows whether the existing job description for a Talent Management Director will still apply in 10 years? And if the nature of the role changes significantly, how do you know that the skills you’re building for the role will still be important 10 years from now?

2) Not only do “things change,” but we change. Our goals and motivators are largely determined by underlying values that are important to us – such as “making a high income” or “having a lot of power.” It’s funny, though, how life events (such as having children) and the natural process of maturation can cause us to recalibrate our values and priorities. As we get close to that definite goal that requires high responsibility and long work hours, we may find that “work-life balance” has unexpectedly become an imperative in the interim. And if we’ve focused our career development efforts too narrowly up to that time, we may find ourselves in career crisis.

Undoubtedly there are people who know exactly what they want in X years and go get it. But there are also others who would feel too hemmed in by such a predetermined goal and who find it more effective to shift and adjust (i.e., improvise) to meet the changes in the environment – and in themselves. As with many other things, career planning (or what I prefer to call “life planning”) is a matter of personal preference and not a cookie-cutter proposition.

Perhaps the best rule of thumb is this: In life planning, either your goals must be flexible or you must be flexible – or both, in whatever combination reflects your own approach to dealing with your environment.

One highly effective approach to life planning involves the creation of an Aspirational Goal for yourself. An Aspirational Goal is, very simply, the way you would complete the sentence, “In X years, I want a situation in which I ….” If you have a precise idea of the role or position you want, you can complete the sentence with precision – e.g, “In 10 years, I want a situation in which I am the Talent Management Director of a Fortune 500 retail company.” 

However, if you are the type who prefers to maintain flexibility in your planning, you can instead describe the factors you want to have in place in your future situation – whatever it might ultimately be. For example, “In 10 years, I want a situation in which I am able to run my own business using my creative abilities, leaving enough time to take two months off each year for travel.” A benefit of the latter approach is that it brings your values (creativity, autonomy, mobility) front and center into your life planning and allows you to reevalute them at regular intervals to see if they still apply.

You can think of your Aspirational Goal as a beacon on a distant hill that helps you navigate your life’s journey. You might find yourself taking detours from time to time and proceeding in a less-than-direct path – but the light from your Aspirational Goal will still be visible to help you reorient yourself and check your progress on the path. As you reach decision points – Should I accept this job? Do I want to pursue this degree? Do I want to relocate to Wyoming? – you can ask yourself: “Will this help me move in the direction of my Aspirational Goal?”

You Need to Have a Goal - or Do You?

I've frequently seen references to a study conducted at Yale in 1953 which found that 3% of MBA graduates surveyed had clear written goals for their future, 13% had goals but had not written them down, and 84% had no specific goals at all. When these same graduates were surveyed ten years later, the 3% who had written goals were earning on average ten times as much as the other 97%.

This study has been cited for years to prove the point that specific, written goals are essential if you want to achieve your highest level of success. The idea is that, if you don’t know (and don’t document) where you’re going with total clarity, you’ll likely fall far short of your potential.

I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of this one-size-fits-all approach to life and career planning. After all, how many people can see with 20/20 foresight what opportunities will present themselves on life’s journey? And, just as situations change, people change. My burning ambition at age 21 to devote myself to an all-consuming career may suddenly be tempered by life events somewhere down the pike – say, my desire to spend more time with my family as I get older.

My sense that there are a variety of approaches to life and career planning is supported by research conducted by Annie McKee, founder of the Teleos Leadership Institute. McKee found that people use three different approaches to thinking about and planning for the future:

1) Goal-oriented: This is the style used by the 16% of the people cited in the Yale study. “Goal-oriented planners tend to focus on very specific goals and outcomes,” writes McKee in Becoming a Resonant Leader (co-authored with Richard Boyatzis and Frances Johnston).

2) Direction-oriented: Regarding this style, McKee writes: “Although they know the general path they wish to pursue, they stop short of getting too specific…. They adapt easily to changes in the environment, but stay true to an overarching set of principles, values, or a vision.” This style is similar to the approach I mentioned in an earlier post, in which a person sets an Aspirational Goal about the things she wants to realize in her life without locking in to a specific path or role.

3) Action-oriented: Action-oriented planners tend not to look very far down the road at all. As McKee says, “They choose each action according to the logic of the moment and base the next decision on outcomes of recent past actions.” I would call these the Improvisational Planners (to use a deliberate contradiction), who base their approach on a series of on-the-fly choices that just feel right at the moment.

With respect to these styles, McKee makes a telling observation:

“One size does not fit all when it comes to formulating a useful plan for your future [emphasis added]. When leadership development programs attempt to convince everyone to use the same format and propose one ‘best way’ [shades of Frederick Winslow Taylor!] to think about a person’s future and plans, it is not surprising that change is not sustained.”

I think that McKee’s research reflects a key point about the nature of change and growth: The more you’re able to chart a development path that reflects your own style, the more likely you’ll be able to follow it. The more you try to shoehorn yourself into an approach that doesn’t fit you, the more you’ll be continually struggling against yourself to sustain your resolve.

As with any change effort, of course, you’ll be well served by challenging yourself to do things outside of your comfort zone. In McKee’s words, “Each of the three styles has wisdom for the other; the point is to know and honor your preference and be aware of the others as you organize activities in your plan.”

But do McKee’s findings go against the conclusions drawn by the Yale study I mentioned above? Well, no – because in fact there is no such Yale study! Even though the “study” has been cited for years (with multiple variations in the retelling – some peg it to Harvard, some place it in the ‘60s, or ‘70s – all in true Urban Legend style), no evidence has been found to confirm its actual existence, as Fast Company magazine pointed out in a 1996 article. While “You Must Have a Goal” may sound like the only way to go, the research shows that it's only one approach to creating a career and life that will work for you.