When we use the terminology
"goals" and "strategies" in our task oriented culture, we often collapse the
meaning and use both words interchangeably, typically focusing on the
"how-to's" of strategies.
The Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines as follows...
Goal:
2 : the end toward which
effort is directed
Strategy:
2 a : a careful plan or
method : a clever stratagem b :
the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal
Strategies represent a plan that will certainly work if only people will do them. There is no end to strategies that could work. The question is will they work for you?
A simple way to find your goal is to ask the question, "What am I wanting for
myself?" The answer to that question is
the true goal. It is that simple.
Goals and strategies are
both important. This is not a discussion
meant to diminish the importance of strategies, but to raise the level of
attention on goals to at least equal status.
There are two major dilemmas that occur when goals and strategies are
collapsed as if they are the same thing.
First, is that in a society
that focuses more on tasks and the how-to's of strategy than on people, we find
that most of us are weak in our understanding of internal motivation. We often do not know the answer to the question,
"What am I wanting?", because we have never stopped to consider the question
deeply enough to get the answer.
Secondly, if we rely on
external motivators it is very easy to find another expert (or even a friend or
family member) who disagrees with our current strategy and lets us off the hook
emotionally. We were never truly
committed in the first place. We were just in agreement that we would give the
strategy a try.
Trusting you will develop an understanding of what you are wanting in 2010,
Elizabeth
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