I am a big believer in setting goals. I not only believe, am almost fanatical about goal setting. I notice, though, that many of us are blindsided by another aspect of goal setting – the steps leading to achieving the goal. I call this the “Journey.”
When you set a goal, e.g., “I raise 5 million USD from Investors by August 1, 2022.” (by the way, that is a true goal I am pursuing, started on July 1, 2021) It has all the elements of what a good goal-setting should look like. It has the usual buzzword of SMART. What it does not have is another aspect I want to emphasize today. It has no element of the Journey. I am encouraging you in this article to modify it to something like “I raise 5 million USD from Investors by August 1, 2022, and I enjoy the Journey.”
Why the emphasis on adding the Journey? Because the destination, the achievement of the goal itself, is a static point. The bulk of the work is done in the activities and the executions leading to the achievement of the goal. If you do not add enjoying the journey to the goal, you risk waiting until the goal is achieved before you are happy. It is akin to a mountain climber waiting to be happy when he gets to the mountain’s summit. That is fine, but what a waste of time. Why not be happy from the moment you start? No, you can do better: Why not be happy from the moment you set the goal.
Many are unhappy in life because they continue to postpone the day of happiness. They set lofty goals and unwittingly are saying: “I will be happy when I achieve that goal” – do better, say “I will be happy when I achieve that goal and, in the meantime, I will enjoy the process leading to the achievement.”
Let us break this down step by step:
Step 1: You decide on your goal. That is fine. Celebrate it. That is an achievement. The end goal is just a static point, once you achieve it, another one soon pops up, and you end up chasing happiness forever. Therefore, just deciding to achieve a goal is good enough to celebrate and be happy about. I am already happy that I have decided to raise 5M USD from investors… hurray!!!!!… No one can take that away from me. I will laugh, dance, feel good, and you know what, that positive motivation will help me move to the next step.
Step 2: Take the first action. In my case, it is the preparation of a Pitch Deck. Boy, it was hard. I hate doing PowerPoint slides. I am a talker; I can talk about the pitch, but sitting down and doing the slide pack was a nightmare. However, since I had the decision to be happy, I was focused on that… Hey Boyi, if you are going to be happy, you can’t be in this negative emotion. I, therefore, was able to start, I put the content together, I did not care about beauty, I cared nothing about the usual rules, e.g., less text, more images… I just started. After a day, I have 15 slides. If you are a Pitch Deck creator, you may not like my draft, but hey, I did it! Hey, I am happy! I can then turn this draft Deck to professionals that can turn it into something beautiful. Just giving them without content will not deliver the goods. They can’t read my brain. It is my story; it is my idea, I, therefore, need to put it in a form that can turn into something beautiful, and I did. In the way of my strength…. Using much text. Since my strength is talking, I use it to produce the draft.
Step 3: Review & Edit draft from the “professional” Pitch Creators: I turned it over to professionals in this area. I selected two different companies. I wanted them to compete so that I could pick the best. However, when their products were returned, I was disappointed. It was far from professional.
I was supposed to be unhappy since disappointment is a negative emotion. However, I had determined to enjoy this journey. I started thinking… “how can I turn this to joy?” The idea was to see if I could do it myself. I can combine the good things in each work and improve on it. I did. I like it. I was happy. But I still doubt if I can produce a good deck… so I decided to let the audience improve it for me. I started pitching with what I did, and after every pitch, I asked the participants: “What can I improve on this Pitch Deck.” They started telling me. Things like “your opening story was great, but it is not reflected in the deck.” “I almost fell asleep at the end; make it a little more interactive.” “It will be nice to have more pictures and less text.” “Your fund statistics page needs some improvement.” I got more than I needed and kept improving.
Here is the latest deck. What do you think? I am proud of what I have produced. I am happily enjoying the journey. Please send me your feedback on the deck here.
Summary: It is good to keep an eye on the goal and to achieve it. However, do not underestimate the importance of enjoying the activities that lead to achieving the goal. That is the longest part of the process, and you should enjoy that journey, not just the destination. Main Reason: When you achieve your goal, what do you get? Answer: Joy, satisfaction, happiness. What if you can achieve the same thing in the process of achieving the goal – you will become a “happy addict.” Enjoy it.
I know you would like to know where I am in my goal: Well, I have raised 0.8 million, I am happy! You can help me on my journey to achieve the goal, and we can both be happy…. See below
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