More Than a Goal
When is working on a goal more than the goal itself?
Do you know what I’m asking here? Have you ever set a goal for yourself or taken on a particularly challenging project and felt that what was at stake was much more important than the goal?
I was listening to a podcast by Jordan Peterson yesterday in which he mentioned this ironic phenomenon, and I can’t stop thinking about it. The more I ponder, the more possibilities I see for our work as teachers, parents, and human beings who want to keep growing.
A Dual Purpose
We all set goals, right? We say we want to lose weight or learn a new sport or spend more quality time with family. If we’re smart about it, we set an ambitious goal and then break it into incremental parts with little behaviors that will achieve our goal over time. We start off strong, but keeping up the practice is hard. How many new year’s resolutions are abandoned before January is out?
According to Jordan Peterson, if we conceptualize our goals with a dual purpose, it increases our motivation exponentially. That second purpose occurs when we ask ourselves, “WHO do we want to be?” The answer is, “the person who has already accomplished the goal.” Then we list the qualities of such a person. Pursuit of the goal becomes about becoming.
This will add the dimension of a hero’s journey. When we have a dual purpose of achieving the goal AND becoming the person we’d like to be, we’re much more motivated. We love cheering on a hero who meets challenges head-on, who struggles and falls down. Who then gets back up and keeps going.
So how does this apply to our work in education?
Teachers
Adopting a dual purpose mindset applies to ourselves in our own professional growth. Are we satisfied with the lesson plans from last year? Are we OK with meeting the needs of MOST of our students? So we set a goal to become more proficient with a set of skills. Having the support of a coach is critical as we apply the new approaches to our own practice. But what if we also envision the teacher we want to become? The teacher who truly makes a difference in the trajectory of students with special needs? Take a moment to describe your future self: What do you do on a regular basis? How do you interact with your colleagues, your students, and their families? What difference will that future self make in your school?
Learners
Adopting a dual purpose mindset applies to our students, too. Do we encourage them to set goals? Maybe it’s how much they will improve in reading, writing, math or behavior? What if we also asked them to envision their future selves?
What if we let them know how much we believed that they could become that future self? In fact, they are on a hero’s journey to become that future self, and you are their side-kick on the journey.
What if we used this approach towards IEP goals too? Can you imagine
We are all impacted by the world around us every day. We are continuously changing. The question is: Are we striving for that future self that we envision? Do we set goals to accomplish or become?
Contact me if you’d like to learn more about how I build a hero’s journey into my professional development packages!
