The road to our goals and the people along the way

A few years ago I have heard "The story of the tiny frog" and I always think of it when it comes to achieving goals. Here is the story:

The Story Of The Tiny Frog

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who got together to arrange a competition to reach to the top of the highest tower in town.
As the date for the competition was announced, the news spread everywhere and crowd in large numbers gathered around the tower to see this interesting competition and cheer on the contestants. The crowd did not really believe any of these little frogs were going to make it to the top of the tower. Yet they were curious…The competition began, the frogs quickly started to ascend and the crowd cheered!
As a few moments passed, someone from the crowd shouted, "Not a chance that they will succeed! The tower is too high!"
Another spectator said, "Yes, they will never make it to the top. It's way too difficult!"

As the competition continued, some of the tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one… tired… exhausted… But the race continued… as those who still had the fight left, passionately continued to climb higher and higher…
In the excitement and anxiety  the crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult. No one will make it!"

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. They all continued to give up one by one, until there was only ONE little frog left in the competition who continued to climb higher and higher and higher…
This one wouldn’t give up!
This one tiny frog who, after a big effort was the only one who reached the top! This little soul was the winner! He made it! He got the glory!

Naturally, everyone wanted to know how this one tiny frog managed to pull it off when every other contestant gave up. Everybody wanted to know how this tiny frog had found the strength to reach this goal that everyone else thought it was impossible. So, they asked questions.

It turned out that the winner was deaf.

The Moral Of The Story: Be deaf when people tell you that you can not fulfill your dreams and goals.  

I would say it´s better to stay away from these people or at least donˋt share your plans or goals with them.

Even if they actually have good  intentions and they donˋt want us to get hurt or demotivated if we donˋt reach our goals, their negative attitude might make us start doubting our own abilities and eventually give up our goals or lower our target.

On the other hand, those people who have a positive attitude, even if they are thinking our goals are too high they will not discourage us. Instead they will share their relevant experience, try and help us make a plan, give us ideas on where to get more information or how to reach our target and even boost our self confidence. These people know that reaching the goal is not the most important thing, but what you learn on the way. They are the ones who will help us grow and who we will always remember with gratitude.

What kind of people do you have around?

How many of them encourage you achieve what you want and are supportive?

How do you handle the ones who under the excuse of being realistic, are telling you how hard it will be for you to get what you want and that it would be better to have lower expectations and goals?  

And how about you? Are you telling others: "You will never make it to the top. It's way too difficult!"?

Setting goals – what actually works?

If you don’t know where you want to go, you will never get there. This is a quote I heard long time ago and that I always like to give as example when it comes to goal setting.

As there are so many theories out there on this topic I decided to test some of them in order to see which one will work for me. I could choose from hundreds of techniques, advice and methods. I could use images, graphics, lists, computer programs and in some cases my imagination or meditation would have been enough.    

In the past seven years I have tried several of methods and stayed with the one that helped me to get to the results I wanted.

What it works for me when it comes to both personal and professional goals is the following: breaking long terms goals into intermediate goals that will help me achieve the long term goal. Then I set other goals that will lead me to the intermediate goals and repeat this until I get to specific actions that I need to do in the present. I have also found very useful to set the goals following the SMART rule. Shortly the characteristics of a SMART objectives are:

Specific: Goals should be simplistically written and clearly define what you are going to do.

Measurable: Goals should be measurable so that you have tangible evidence that you have accomplished them.

Achievable: Goals should be achievable; they should stretch you slightly so you feel challenged, but defined well enough so that you can achieve them. You must possess the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to achieve the goal.

Results-focused: Goals should measure outcomes, not activities.

Time-bound: Goals should be linked to a time frame that creates a practical sense of urgency, or results in tension between the current reality and the vision of the goal. Without such tension, the goal is unlikely to produce a relevant outcome.

To be more specific, here is an example

Let’s say that you are a senior accountant and your long term goal is to become the Head of accounting in an international company, in the next 5 years.

What would it take for you to get there? (Intermediate goals for the medium term)

1. Find a job as Accounting Manager – December 2014

2. Master in Economy - 2016

3. Getting accounting qualifications - 2015

4. Working with certain operations and accounting standards - 2018

5. International work experience – 2018

6. Find a job as Head of accounting - 2019

What would you need to do to achieve every of these goals? (Intermediate goals for short term)

1. Find a job as Accounting Manager – October 2014

- Research on job market, requirements, jobs open on the market, companies that could be interesting – December 2013

- Preparing CV – January 2013

- Updating professional profile on online social media channels – January 2014

-  Increase online social network with 20% until April 2014

- Contacting recruitment agencies – March 2014

- Sending applications – minimum 1 per week – starting March 2014

And so on with every intermediate goal on medium term.

Regarding the form, simple lists like the ones from above are sufficient for me. However, for some people graphics, diagrams or pictures might work better.

Some specialists say that is helpful to share your goals with other people. For me this is not working at all and I prefer to keep my goals just for myself as I think they are something very personal. 
It is essential to periodically read your goals and cut of the list the ones you have already achieved or to update the list with new dates or new mini goals.

I believe that there are no good or bad methods when it comes to goal setting. Each of us should try out and choose the strategy or technique that has the best results for us, or even combine them.
The main thing is to have a goal and strive to achieve it.