Category: Goals

Just Going Through the Motions

There are times I complete my to-do list, and yet, I feel like I have not accomplished anything. Do you ever experience those days?

Habits, consistency, and perseverance help me achieve my goals on a daily basis. But if I don’t continually challenge my habits, then I risk becoming complacent.

That’s why I enjoy learning about people that are highly successful. Most have worked a lifetime to hone and perfect their skills. They always seem to be at their best, and authentic in their ways.

Just this week, Paul McCartney  signed a new record deal with Capital Records. At seventy-four years old, Paul still writes and records great music. He is not complacent, and definitely not just going through the motions.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (once as a member of the Beatles, and once as a solo artist), Paul McCartney also has 21 Grammy Awards. He is the writer or co-writer of 32 Billboard 100 number one songs. I think you would agree, Paul is highly successful.

Most successful people truly enjoy what they do. For them, their work is fun.

You can find similar examples in any field… authors, actors, businessmen, inventors, and investors. You have to like what you do, so you can do it over and over and over. Never tiring of the discipline and the routine. It is not going through the motions, but sincere love.

I have been writing weekly articles for over five years. Writing these articles for me is not just going through the motions. It is fun, challenging, and enjoyable. I may not be a great writer, but I am better than I was five years ago. And it is still fun.

If you catch yourself just going through the motions. Take a break. Discover where the fun disappeared. Then find a way to put the fun back in your day.

The Same Old Thing Is Not the Answer

It was a Wednesday evening. My wife and I had just returned from our church. Elliot, our Cocker Spaniel, usually greeted us at the door every time we came home, but tonight he didn’t. We found him lying on his bed, and we could tell immediately something was not right.

I checked the house to see if he had gotten sick, or for any clues about why he was not behaving normal. I found nothing.

We could tell Elliot did not feel well, but did not know why. He wasn’t injured. So we assumed, that he probably ate something that he should not have. We let him rest and kept our eye on him.

About midnight, he started having problems breathing. You could tell he was in pain. We didn’t think it warranted an emergency trip to the vet in the middle of the night, so we just tried to comfort him the best we could. Eventually, he went to sleep, and so did we.

The next morning my wife left for work, and I was left with Elliot. He seemed to be getting better, but was still moving very slow.

Day by day he improved and after a couple of days we thought he had recovered. Then he had a relapse. Then after a few more days he recovered again. Then another relapse.

We finally decided to take him to see a doctor. They kept him for several hours, and ran multiple tests and x-rays. They found a slight injury to his back, and prescribed pain killers, and rest.

Let me tell you, it it hard to get a dog to rest. Yes, dogs rest all the time. Their energy comes in blasts. It was difficult to keep him quiet, when he was ready to play.

It took a few more weeks, but eventually Elliot fully recovered. We will never know what caused his injury. We think he must have fell from the sofa when he was sleeping.

Before he went to the doctor, the weeks we spent trying to let him heal himself were ineffective. Every time he started to feel better, he would become active and aggravate his injury.

There are many situations in life that I find the same. When we are not succeeding, and we keep trying to solve the problem the same way, we end up making the situation worse. 

For Elliot there was a simple solution. For most of us, sometimes the change we need is not so obvious. But we know if we keep doing the same thing, we are not going to solve our the problem. Many times we need to get outside help, just like Elliot did.

Utilizing the Perspective of Time to Achieve More

Rarely do I have a day that goes perfectly. I doubt that the perfect day really exists. When I am having a really bad day, I sometimes examine my actions from the perspective of time to see if I can get back on track.

Here is what I mean, and three simple ways to look at your day.

Utilizing the Past – We achieve more by utilizing knowledge, experience, lessons learned, and from the performance of others. The question I ask myself is, “Am I taking the time to learn from the past, and applying those lessons effectively?” If we don’t take the time to learn from our history, the path for success will be very long.

Utilizing the Present – There are days when my focus of the moment is not as precise as I would like. Do you ever feel like your routine is just that, a routine with no purpose or effect? That can be a feeling I have if I am not paying enough attention on the actions I am performing. When we lack focus, we lose the effectiveness of the present moment. It is a moment that we can never get back. So the two questions I like to ask myself are, “Am I being intentional in my action? What is distracting me from being focused?”.

Utilizing the Future – I have always believed that it is difficult to achieve a future that you cannot visualize with a high level of detail. If your dream for the future is fuzzy, it helps to spend time bringing clarity to your goals. Only then can you be sure you have the right daily actions defined to to move you closer to achieving your longer term objectives. The question I like to ask myself is, “What specifically do I want to be different tomorrow compared with today?”

When I am struggling to meet my goals, normally I discover that I have ignored one of these three time perspectives in the plan for my day. Once I recognize where I am failing, I can adjust to make sure I have considered all three. It amazes me how quickly this exercise can get me back on track.

When you find yourself falling behind, what triggers you to adjust your day or week?

P.S. – If you want to read some interesting analysis on time perspectives, here is an article by John Boyd, An Overview of Time Perspective Types.

One Key Lesson in Effective Goal Setting

Lean manufacturing drives improvement through continuous data driven analysis, experimentation, and problem solving. It is a never ending process. Two of the main targets for manufacturing improvement are cycle time and cost.

One example, from my manufacturing history, was the discovery of a new cleaning process for a lens on a laser welder. This lens required replacement after a fixed number of production cycles, and it was expensive. Through a development process, we were able to implement a new cleaning routine that extended the life of the lens. It also proved to improve the weld reliability by reducing variation in the process.

Another example, was a nylon fixture used in a punch press operation. Nylon was used for specific characteristics, but it wore quickly in the process. The base of the fixture needed replaced at least every month. It was not expensive, but we had multiple machines and fixtures. To reduce cost we were able to redesign the base so that it could be reversed and used on the opposite side after the first side was worn out. Effectively we doubled the life of the base, and cut our monthly costs by 50%.

Goals at work can be very clear. Usually they are data driven, measurable, and have financial impact. Goals at home are quite different.

If I were to apply work goals to my house, I would vacuum my furnace filters every week so I could use them longer without replacing them. Would it work? Sure, but why would I spend my time doing that?

At home, cost effectiveness and efficiency are important, but they are not the most important.  What is my point?

We can accomplish great things. We have minds that are creative and imaginative. We have a human spirit that perseveres hardships and obstacles. But if we don’t have a clear sense of what we want to achieve, we are going to waste our potential.

My big lesson in making a goal more effective came through understanding the perspective through which the goal was set. 

When is the last time you evaluated your goals? For me, it is an exercise worth completing every six months.