Reader Mandy Cooley pointed us to a recent blog post about goal setting. The message: perspective on objectives is as important as the goals themselves.

The full post at Brass Tack Thinking explains:

It’s often more helpful to measure the distance we’ve traveled than the distance we’ve yet to go. The first is real accomplishment; the second still unknown.

That “miles traveled” measure can be enormously helpful when we’ve lost sight of a big goal, or feel overwhelmed by the time or distance it’ll take to get there. But it can be even more helpful when we build it in from the get-go.

This is a powerful suggestion. Running the first 25 miles of a 26.2 mile marathon is still very impressive. Many of us can’t motivate ourselves to start training for a long distance run, much less cover this incredible distance.

Furthermore, it reinforces an idea that we’re constantly exploring at Slaughter Development: that perspective is more important than problems. We often need to take a moment and THINK BIG before attacking an issue. If we don’t, we may be creating a productivity paradox: furiously digging ourselves into a hole rather than calmly climbing our way out.

If you need help setting and achieving goals in your professional life, you may want to ask for help. Consider our Productivity Coaching services. We’d love to help you set and meet goals, but also help you adopt a healthier viewpoint on the true meaning of objectives and progress.

Thanks to Mandy Cooley of Deliberate Direction for sending us this story!

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