Goalkeeping

Dear Friends,
Way before the concept of "two stars and a wish" hit our classrooms, my parents were already practising descriptive feedback. I was raised on "It's ok, but ..." "It's good, but..." "It's excellent, but..." My parents' perpetual push towards the next step, resulted in my lifelong dissatisfaction with myself.

It's ironic that on my way to further self-improvement (a permanent goal of mine), I should run into Lisa Ordóñez' theory of 'Goals Gone wild!'
This weekend, reluctantly, I picked up, once again, Oliver Burkeman's, The Antidote, Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking. I say, reluctantly because I would like to think of myself as an ardent pupil of the school of Positive Thinking - another lasting, tireless goal of mine! 

According to Lisa Ordóñez and her team of researchers, setting too many goals is not as productive as managers might think. Pursuing too many objectives leads to poor results or unhealthy stress. 
As Burkeman analyses the dangers of constantly setting goals, he describes Saras Sarasvathy's anti-goal principles as such:

Casually minded people are those who select or are given a specific goal, and then choose from whatever means are available to make a plan for achieving it. Effectually minded people on the other hand, examine what means and materials are at their disposal, then imagine what possible ends, or provisional next directions, those means might make possible.

In closing, Burkeman refers to Chris Kayes notes, concluding that the mountaineers who died climbing Mount Everest in 1996 were victims of their 'goals.' Their obsession with ascending to the summit of Mount Everest (coûte que coûte) blinded them to unfavourable timing and perilous temperatures.  

Interestingly enough, teachers are not unfamiliar with the fact that certain goals have the tendency of looking better in theory, on paper or in psychology labs, than they do in the classroom, aka the real life. 

Basically, pages and pages of my Sunday afternoon reading can be summed up in two popular expressions, Don't spread yourself too thin because it's easier said than done.  
We should make a better use of our sayings, parables and proverbs! 

Just in time for Lent, I shall give up goal-setting, if not in my professional life, at least in my personal life! Although, sometimes, I do question the philosophy behind facilitating others' ascents at the expense of my own wellbeing. Good enough shall be enough! Accepted and filed.
What have you accepted and filed today?