IATROGENIC GOAL

April 17th, 2020

We believe that setting a goal is a good thing.  It gives us something concrete to move towards, a scope to dissect, deconstruct and tackle in pieces.  At it’s most quaint, we might even be able to ascertain a progress bar for how close we are and how on track we are to finishing.

The trade off of such usual goal-setting is that it can cap possibility.  If goals are not somewhat ridiculous in measure of one’s current abilities, then the task is at risk of being tedious.  Furthermore, with goals set far above our abilities, we’re not only guaranteed to grow in order to reach for such goals, but such discoveries along the way allow for greater goals to be imagined. 

If, on your way to the top of the mountain, you find you have to slay a dragon who blocks your way, then far more than climbing mountains is in your purview if you make it all the way through. 

But even with undiscovered tools getting picked up on the way to audacious goals, such goals still ascribe a border, a limit.

Notice the difference between: ‘My goal is to make a million dollars’ and ‘I want to make as much money as possible.’

A million dollars is perhaps tiny compared to the second, and both are limited to the small scope of simply making money.

There is an asymmetrical tradeoff with specificity and achieving a goal.  The most specific a goal is, the more straight forward it is to tackle and accomplish.  But the more specific a goal is, the more likely we are to limit the scope of what we might realize is possible as we go about making that goal a reality, all the while failing to imagine a greater reality that could be drawn up.

Simply put:

Don’t let your dreams limit you, so don’t limit your dreams.