Goals and plans

Goals are set, rather than planned. What must be planned is how the goals are achieved. Confusing achievement with goal setting is a common mistake. Goals, however, cannot be achieved without a plan. Goal setting without considering how they can be achieved, their feasibility, as well as the consequences, positive or negative, of achieving them is another.

Yet conducting one’s life, profession, leisure, family, finances, without clear goals can only lead to chaos. So it goes, beyond the individuals, for economy, foreign policy, society… The “laissez faire” fallacy (Hayek), dear to liberalism in all its forms and iterations, is the ultimate way to achieve nothing, to accumulate debts, to lose wars. So is the lesson of history since antiquity.

Think!

For us, as thinking individuals, capable of spiritual insights and reflection, the first step is precisely to contemplate what it is we want to achieve, in all domains of our lives, physical and spiritual. With marriage we have to think of her well-being, her happiness, her own objectives, with children, their health, their education, their chances as growing full human beings. Taking education as an example, it is about what will help them, how they will chose their own path to acquiring skills, what subjects they study, the obstacles, the enablers, the pitfalls, the risks, how to help them learn from successes and failures.

It applies to us as well, as adults, for our goals are also, or should be, about responsibilities, toward our family but also society, our ancestors, the future generations. They should be set in full light of our faith, our commitment to the Saviour, our willingness to fight evil, to confirm our value as members of a community, intelligent, thinking beings. Plans should be capable of adjustments, even radical changes, dependent on circumstances and experience, whereas goals should be stable, and to the extent that their choice is not dictated by external events, that is events beyond our control, or at least understanding, not subject to superficial changes in fashion, or influences from others, once set. 

Navigation

The navigation analogy is valid: we must know first where we are going, and consider carefully a choice of route, how we will get there. The steps in between, where we rest, refuel, get supplies, are secondary goals or milestones, what enables us, not only to continue our journey safely, but also measure our progress.

Changes to the route may be necessary, roads may be closed, the car or ship may need repair.  A good captain knows how to alter the plan to continue and ultimately take the travellers safely to the target of the journey. Improvisation is to be strictly prohibited on goal setting. On the other hand improvisation may well be needed during the journey as unforeseen obstacles may be encountered.

Endeavours

It should evident that there is a qualitative difference between planning a holiday, and, say, an entire field of studies. This difference translates into the time taken to plan, the research that supports these choices, the alternatives identified should things not turn out as expected. Planning to obtain a master degree spans several years of one life, as opposed to a few weeks at most for a short holiday. A worldwide trip would require longer too.

How about writing? Going blind on a short story, and following one’s inspiration may be good enough. If one is planning to write a novel, the preparation, research, development of characters may take years before one is ready to write the story. And then there will follow many iterations from the “first draft”, if such a thing ever exists.

Interference

Considering how a writer’s life is affected by all the other goals she has to set and plan for, is a little beyond the scope of this short post, but it is worth mentioning, that goals do have the ability to interfere with each other. It is near impossible to so divide one’s life into rigorously separate slices to avoid it. An it may be better that way!