Achieving results…
Where practice meets routine and routine meets life the common advice for staying focused and carrying on is to set goals or set intentions. A ship needs a destination. An arrow needs a target. A pursuit needs an aim. These are goals. Concrete, clear, defined, measurable, known. But what if the end objective is unknown? Say you’re going on a hike, but not to get somewhere, not to reach any summit, just to see what you see, spend time outdoors, smell the mountain air. Perhaps a goal emphasizes objective over experience and, instead, you need an intention. An intention can be more open, general, and may take on varying qualities of experience. For example, if you go on vacation your intention may be “to relax” or “to be with my family”. Or at the start of a workout intentions might take the form of “to be present” or “to use good form”.
Goals typically apply to a more macro (larger or further away) objective, whereas intentions may more often be used for nearer term micro activities, tasks, and practices. Setting goals into the distance allows for assessment and course correction to keep the progress in line, mitigated, and on track to meet the aim. Setting intentions brings more adaptability into the process and meets you where you are with what you need in the short term. An example most people are familiar with is a fitness goal. The goal is set for 6 weeks of training to lose 10 lbs and meet body weight strength targets. The goal is in the future, it’s concrete, and it can be assessed at any point to monitor progress and make adjustments. Using intentions, each workout can adapt to where you are in your progress and in your life – if you’re sore from previous workouts you may set an intention of gentle movement, if you’re short on time you may set an intention of present focus, if you’re feeling discouraged you may set an intention of showing up. Of course you can apply intentions to macro objectives (like the vacation example) or goals to everyday activities (like minimum or maximum reps). But usually goals are set from a distance and intentions generate in very close proximity.
Bring back the fun…
How does reading all that make you feel? Well, I’ll tell you how writing it makes me feel. Tired, overwhelmed, unmotivated, and like saying forget it. That’s a lot of work to get started doing something that I supposedly want to do. I kind of don’t even want to do it anymore if that’s what it takes. I’m not saying I don’t believe in goals and intentions. I’ve seen them work. But this kind of mental labor really sucks the fun out doing anything.
That said, sometimes goal and intention setting isn’t just a good practice, it’s necessary. Have you ever tried to do something and failed and you weren’t sure exactly what went wrong? You probably didn’t have a good, clear, measurable goal. Have you ever felt like you were just going through the motions on something you wanted or needed to do instead of really being in it or really caring? You probably didn’t have a genuine intimate intention. Goals and intentions can act as a framework for your plans and endeavors. You apply them to or incorporate them with a solid foundation and they help keep you aligned and progressing toward a positive or desired outcome.
Throughout these blog posts I may express that I’m no expert in my areas of exploration, but in this domain I have something to bring to the table. My professional trade and craft is Evaluation. I have worked for over a decade with individuals, teams, and organizations to evaluate their projects and programs. Evaluation requires goal (or outcome) setting. As I walk clients through the process of describing how they expect to get from what they’re doing to what they’re hoping will result from what they’re doing, I watch their eyes glaze over and the disinterest set in. It’s brain work. I have often suggested folks chow on some chocolate while we go through the exercise (a trick I learned from Germans touring museums for hours at a time – they call it brain food).
Goals are necessary when funding is attached to work and desired outcomes, but what about when it comes to our individual personal projects? If we’re motivated to be exacting (e.g., fit into that dress) or toward achievement (e.g., get published, make an extra $5,000 this year) goals are important and useful. It’s worth the mental labor. However, if the aim is more of a would be nice if or I would really like to or even I would like more of or I would like less of, then a goal might not serve the work as well. Neither is intention setting exactly called for here. In my professional capacity we’ve entered the highly theoretical realm of “theory of change”. In a nutshell, the goal is the process. Instead of working toward and driving at end states in linear fashion, we’re refining and implementing processes that we believe should influence dynamic conditions further down the chain.
My 10 Weeks of Winter is more of a process oriented, theory of change, project. I’m applying processes (e.g., protocols, mindsets) across multiple areas of my life to achieve a dynamic effect of renewed or enhanced appreciation of the winter season. The changes and practices for this project can be understood as three core structural functions:
Interventions – things you do
Abstinence – things you don’t do
Maintenance – things you retain, sustain, and nourish
Goals and intentions will absolutely be a part of some of my individual protocols, or just a regular part of my life, but when I try to insert explicit goals or intentions into the overall 10 Weeks of Winter I feel color drain from the world. Setting a goal is too harsh and setting an intention is too rigid. I want to uplift an experience, and experience is variable. What I need are strong supportive structures that let the experience be what it is and ideally, if it works, a better and better version of what it is. Onward to a wonderful winter!
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