Questions for your most important goals!

[Marvin7148]

Hey guys,

Here are some questions for your most important goals

How secure will reaching this dream make me?

What can I work on now to enable me to fulfill these dreams? If I want to play first violin in a symphony orchestra, write novels, own my own business, become a physician, and so on, what are the first steps I must take?

Do I have the talent, knowledge, and discipline necessary to reach this particular goal?

Whom should I seek as a teacher or mentor to help me reach this dream?
If I reach this main dream, my major goal, will I be both happy and healthy?

In my quest for this dream, will I still be able to have many friends and have good relationships with my family, friends, and coworkers?

What is the appropriate time-line for achieving this dream? (Or can I really set one?)

Is this goal something I will love to pursue for a lifetime?

What obstacles do I need to overcome to make my dream a reality?


Marvin.

selfhelpzone (http://www.selfhelpzone.com/category/goal-setting/)

[Brent]

Note that "How secure will reaching this dream make me?" has some implicit assumptions in and of itself. Some people don't care about security.

[treelike]

I prefer to let my BIG goals develop "organically". I'd rather sit down and think of some little things to do, that might not come to anything, but they are in my interest zone. So at the very least, I have some fun doing them. The few things that turn out better than expected might lead to bigger things.....

GTD is the perfect system for keeping these little things going. It's probably OK for the "top down" goal setting technique suggested by the original poster too.

[mcogilvie]

What can I work on now to enable me to fulfill these dreams? If I want to play first violin in a symphony orchestra, write novels, own my own business, become a physician, and so on, what are the first steps I must take?


Next Actions: start one-man band, write about something, set up lemonade stand, and practice brain surgery in front of mirror. :)

[Marvin7148]

Hey guys thank you for replies and sorry for late reply.

Hey Brent"How secure will reaching this dream make me?" adding your question to goal setting. Let see what others think about it.

treelike, thank you for your complement.


mcogilvie Oh god you are very funny you made me LMAO.

[louies77]

Very intersting post.

[Cpu_Modern]

Hey Brent"How secure will reaching this dream make me?" adding your question to goal setting. Let see what others think about it.

Know please explain this to me.

[Scott_L_Lewis]

Hey guys,

Here are some questions for your most important goals

How secure will reaching this dream make me?
...
Do I have the talent, knowledge, and discipline necessary to reach this particular goal?
...
In my quest for this dream, will I still be able to have many friends and have good relationships with my family, friends, and coworkers?
...
Is this goal something I will love to pursue for a lifetime?


Marvin,

First of all, I think that your basic idea is sound. Having a list of "powerful" questions to ask yourself about your goals does a lot to help you think more deeply and constructively about what you want to do.

However, I do have a concern with the questions I've quoted - at least with the way these are worded. What these questions really do is ask me to predict the future, which I can't really do. For example, how do I really know if realizing this goal will make me more secure, or how do I really know if I will be able to maintain my friendships?

There is also the "problem" of the answers becoming self-fulfilling prophesies. For example, the question about having the talent, knowledge, and discipline reminds me of that saying attributed to Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."

A more useful way of posing future oriented questions would be: "In what ways do I think the realization of of this goal will affect....?"

Answering this question keeps you rooted in the fact that your beliefs about the future are just that...beliefs. In addition, the use of "In what ways...." leads to multiple answers, not just one. Once you have those beliefs, the first order of business is to ask yourself "Why do I believe this?" On further analysis, you might see your original belief to be pretty flimsy.

However, let's say for example, you believe (with good reason) that realizing your dream will lead to conflicts with your spouse. The way to deal with that concern is to turn it into a "how" question: "How can I get my spouse's support while I do this?" Or better yet: "In what ways might I get my spouse's support while I do this?"

This mode of questioning helps you take problems that might stop you in your tracks and turn them into projects that will move you forward.