The person speaking was talking about setting goals, where do you want your business to go in 2016. That is quite an exercise for me at the moment, as I'm at somewhat of a crossroads. But even more interesting than that was a comment by one of the people at my table. She indicated that she felt goal setting such as we were doing in this exercise was actually limiting. As we talked, she made some rather interesting points.
The core of her argument was that most of the goal setting exercises are top down. They are traditional general-to-specific stepwise refinements of an overall concept. My friend's comments was that this is quite linear, rationalistic, cause-and-effect, present-to-future reasoning. In her view, instead of expanding your vision, this exercise actually limited it. Rather than coming from the subconscious, these goals come from the rational mind.
My friend observed that that goals set in these top-down exercises don't typically last very long. Furthermore, the Universe has a way of throwing curveballs at us. Call them karma, life lessons, or anything else, but the world is an unpredictable place. Setting goals top down can be less flexible than might be needed in our topsy-turvy life and times.
I have found that this top-level vision tends to be the sticking point with many people I know. In fact many people don't know what they want - at least in the rational mind. There are also influences from family, the boss, last year's business plan, etc. So the top down vision tends to be very skewed by what you 'should' want, instead of what you truly want at your innermost core.
Instead, perhaps we need to envision a future from the bottom up. What if instead, we can grow that future organically, and feel that reality. Then perhaps that future will take its place as a future reality. Perhaps then it will more closely match what our passion is.
In hypnosis, I've done this with a number of clients. Inviting them to be a one or two years into their future, I have asked them to describe their surroundings. Starting with the most primitive, I have asked them questions like are you inside or outside? Are you alone or is there someone with you? Is the location bright, or is it more dark? Are you standing, sitting or lying down. The key here is to establish a deep emotional association to that future reality. Then we can build from there.
Once we have that basic reality established we can begin to look at some more sophisticated questions. What does your office look like? How often are you in it? What is your relationship with other people, both in and out of the office?
Then we can ask What is happening now? Just as if we were doing hypnotic regression, I ask the client to continue, allowing the clock to move forward. What is occurring? What is the feeling behind whatever is going on now? (hint, it should be enjoyment or passion for what is occurring, otherwise we are not in that ideal future reality).
Once we have established the details of this future reality, we can ask what the most important aspects of this reality are. What is it about this future place/time is the most wonderful? When do you feel that passion? What helps you feel the most reward? What is it about this reality that is most important?
Once we know that, we can ask what the changes were that helped bring that reality about. What was the road you traveled from the present day into that future reality? What did you have to do to travel that road. What were some of the challenges you had to overcome to reach that reality? And finally, what was the first step you took from the present day to get you down that road?
This is where I typically team up with a life or business coach. It is important to revisit this vision, and this road on a regular basis. And in that, perhaps the road less traveled can become the road that leads to a future, passionate reality, one grown bottom-up from the fabric of consciousness, rather than prescribed from the top down.
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