Clarifying your AIM is more important than setting goals.
250 words/min = 4 min Read
You may or may not be a goal setter. Whether you look forward to New Year’s resolutions or look the other way, there is something greater than a goal. It’s your AIM. Your aim falls somewhere between your goal/objectives and your vision. Your goals and objectives are made up of specific and measurable efforts that produce a desired future outcome. An aim is more about the mindset and principles of the present that will lead to an acceptable future no matter the outcome of the goal.
So what is our aim?
Our aim includes not only what we want to achieve this year, but includes how we intend to achieve it. If we have a vision of making a million dollars, we have some decisions to make. We can play the lottery, we can start a business, or we can (illegally) rob a bank. Once we set our aim, THEN, we begin setting goals. We have to select our target before striving to hit the bulls-eye. A goal without an aim is like a ship setting sail without taking a compass. We need a “true north” to set our bearings and course.
Do we need an aim (or is this more feel-good leadership gobbledygook)?
YES! Our aim guides our hunger and shapes how we perceive reality. Jordan B Peterson talks about how the brain starts playing mental images of food when the body gets hungry. When we get up to go to the kitchen, we only notice and remember things associated with food. Without an aim, our actions flow out of our hunger and not out of purpose.
If you aim to eat healthy, then the mental image that will pop up as an option, maybe a salad or a turkey sandwich. If your hunger runs away without an aim, then the piece of chocolate on the counter will do! We will always get hungry. The hunger will return (or never subside) no matter how much food we eat. Our aim gives us boundaries so that our desire to quench our hunger does not consume us or cause us to make harmful decisions.
Give yourself a raise?
Three people were sitting in the room, an office manager, a service technician, and me. The manager had called the employee in the office because of some disturbing information. The manager had just received news that the employee had been leaving jobs in the middle of the day to spend hours at a local gym and adding hours to this time clock. For three months, the employee had taken thousands of dollars in unworked time from the company.
The manager asked the employee if the information was true. “Yes,” the technician responded. The manager then asked why he would do this to the team? I will never forget the technician’s response. He said, “I told you I needed a raise.” His response was a fascinating study in human psychology. The manager had previously been very open and detailed about what the technician needed to learn to receive a raise. The technician was already paid more than the other technicians on his team. What was interesting was that when the technician was caught, he didn’t lie. He just blamed his behavior on his manager.
The technician was hungry for more money. He had lots of options on how to make more money. He could have worked more hours, taken a second job, or learned the new technical material and received a promotion and a raise. However, he never made it to the fridge. He chose the first and easiest option he passed in the kitchen. His hunger got the best of him, and it cost him his job.
In life, we have the propensity to be driven by hunger instead of aiming our drive. We may be hungry for more money, status, sex, recognition, power, or 100 other “foods in the fridge.” We need aims to keep our hunger in check. We need our brains to play the images of positive and healthy ways we can satisfy our hungers. If not, we do things like cut corners, cheat time clocks, backstab co-workers, or anything else that immediately justifies the hungers.
John Darley and Daniel Batson from Princeton University conducted a study using 67 students from Princeton Theological Seminary. They asked the students to prepare to give a talk on the parable of The Good Samaritan, a story in the Bible. In the parable, several Levite priests pass by a man that is in distress. However, the Samaritan stops and helps the man recover.
The students were then held up so that they were late to give their talk in the chapel. Near the door of the chapel, a disheveled man laid moaning. The students were studying to be ministers, but they were in a hurry. So how many virtually stepped over the man to give a speech on helping people in need? 60%. Just because we know what is right, it doesn’t mean it’s our aim.
It would be easy to throw shade on the seminary students. For me, it is pretty scary. How easy is it for me to lose sight of the most important things in life. If people who study helping those in need can miss it, then I can too. Like the students, we all need to clarify our aims because:
- Aim gives direction to your goals and objectives (steers the hunger).
- Aim creates boundaries and consistency (this not that).
- Aim helps us slow down and focus on what is important (awareness of the present).
Do you know what you aim to achieve? Let’s take time this week and think about our “trips to the fridge.”
~ Dallas
Clarifying your AIM is more important than setting goals.
250 words/min = 4 min Read
You may or may not be a goal setter. Whether you look forward to New Year’s resolutions or look the other way, there is something greater than a goal. It’s your AIM. Your aim falls somewhere between your goal/objectives and your vision. Your goals and objectives are made up of specific and measurable efforts that produce a desired future outcome. An aim is more about the mindset and principles of the present that will lead to an acceptable future no matter the outcome of the goal.
So what is our aim?
Our aim includes not only what we want to achieve this year, but includes how we intend to achieve it. If we have a vision of making a million dollars, we have some decisions to make. We can play the lottery, we can start a business, or we can (illegally) rob a bank. Once we set our aim, THEN, we begin setting goals. We have to select our target before striving to hit the bulls-eye. A goal without an aim is like a ship setting sail without taking a compass. We need a “true north” to set our bearings and course.
Give yourself a raise?
Three people were sitting in the room, an office manager, a service technician, and me. The manager had called the employee in the office because of some disturbing information. The manager had just received news that the employee had been leaving jobs in the middle of the day to spend hours at a local gym and adding hours to this time clock. For three months, the employee had taken thousands of dollars in unworked time from the company.
The manager asked the employee if the information was true. “Yes,” the technician responded. The manager then asked why he would do this to the team? I will never forget the technician’s response. He said, “I told you I needed a raise.” His response was a fascinating study in human psychology. The manager had previously been very open and detailed about what the technician needed to learn to receive a raise. The technician was already paid more than the other technicians on his team. What was interesting was that when the technician was caught, he didn’t lie. He just blamed his behavior on his manager.
The technician was hungry for more money. He had lots of options on how to make more money. He could have worked more hours, taken a second job, or learned the new technical material and received a promotion and a raise. However, he never made it to the fridge. He chose the first and easiest option he passed in the kitchen. His hunger got the best of him, and it cost him his job.
In life, we have the propensity to be driven by hunger instead of aiming our drive. We may be hungry for more money, status, sex, recognition, power, or 100 other “foods in the fridge.” We need aims to keep our hunger in check. We need our brains to play the images of positive and healthy ways we can satisfy our hungers. If not, we do things like cut corners, cheat time clocks, backstab co-workers, or anything else that immediately justifies the hungers.
John Darley and Daniel Batson from Princeton University conducted a study using 67 students from Princeton Theological Seminary. They asked the students to prepare to give a talk on the parable of The Good Samaritan, a story in the Bible. In the parable, several Levite priests pass by a man that is in distress. However, the Samaritan stops and helps the man recover.
The students were then held up so that they were late to give their talk in the chapel. Near the door of the chapel, a disheveled man laid moaning. The students were studying to be ministers, but they were in a hurry. So how many virtually stepped over the man to give a speech on helping people in need? 60%. Just because we know what is right, it doesn’t mean it’s our aim.
It would be easy to throw shade on the seminary students. For me, it is pretty scary. How easy is it for me to lose sight of the most important things in life. If people who study helping those in need can miss it, then I can too. Like the students, we all need to clarify our aims because:
- Aim gives direction to your goals and objectives (steers the hunger).
- Aim creates boundaries and consistency (this not that).
- Aim helps us slow down and focus on what is important (awareness of the present).
Do you know what you aim to achieve? Let’s take time this week and think about our “trips to the fridge.”
~ Dallas
