3 Ps of Goal Success

All of us have goals in our life, although we do not set them formally. Our Informal goals are set mostly by our life situations, needs, and compulsions. Most often, informal goals are driven by external influences such as fascinating success stories, media influence, and other factors, rather than by internal desire, clarity, or calling.

Setting the right goal formally and accomplishing it is difficult and equally tricky. Any goal set without proper thinking and clarity tends to fail and consumes lot of time and effort without any result. This sometimes leads to disappointment and may prevent one from setting goals in the future.

Setting the right goal is a good measure of one’s clarity and preferences in life. The 3P’s of Goal Success elucidated below, can serve as handy guidelines for one in setting formal goals, and in accomplishing them.

The 3 Ps are:

o Practical

o Perseverance

o Patience

Practical — It is always good to check if the goal one has set is practical or not from his/her vantage point? what this means is: we watch a program on TV or any other media, meet someone, read about someone, and get fascinated by their success stories and achievements, and try to set goals based on them. No two persons are alike, even if they share the same interests, passions, and skills. Hence, trying to create goals out of mere fascination or inspiration is a recipe for disappointment.

It is but natural for anyone to get fascinated or inspired by great achievers — say an athlete or an artist, and their stories. But often undermine the time and effort it took for an athlete or an artist to reach certain level of expertise before we aspire to become one.

Although we know for the fact that setting any goal — as simple as getting up early in the morning, takes its own time, effort, discipline, and focus. We tend to ignore this fact while setting goals driven by inspiration or fascination.

Hence, before setting a goal, do ask “is this goal a practical one, based on my situation, experience, expertise, and vantage point, and even stage of Life?”

Perseverance — Perseverance is key to achieving anything in life, and it is true for achieving our goals too. It is a time given to oneself, to understand the goal clearly and to build a proper proposition to accomplish it.

It takes time, repeatability, and iterations for the mind to build a better knowledge of anything or task. The habit of Perseverance helps in accomplishing this. It is through perseverance one keeps learning about the goal, gains insights, understands all aspects of the goal. It is this learning that enhances our ability and capacity to achieve the goal.

Patience — Perseverance needs immense patience, without which one may get disappointed, frustrated at times, one may not enjoy one’s journey of reaching the goal post. During the course of the journey, one may realize his shortcomings, misconceptions about his skills, or level of expertise. This can make one lose his confidence too. But if one has patience, he/she can overcome his/her shortcomings, thereby developing a more realistic view of self, and continue his journey towards accomplishing the Goal.

Let us take an example of growing a plant/tree to understand the above concepts let us say, we want to grow a plant or tree, first, we decide the plant we plan to grow and the land in which we plan to grow it. It is necessary to choose a conducive soil, climate, and other essential factors for the plant we wish to grow, this forms the practical aspect of the goal — we know naturally Apples do not grow in the desert. If factors are not conducive for the plant/tree we want to grow, either we choose a different plant/tree conducive for the land or choose a different piece of land.

Having made our choice of plant/tree and having found a conducive land for the same, we start with sowing the seed, assuming we know all aspects of growing a plant/tree, but soon we realize it’s not so, as we start facing various challenges, perseverance is that habit, which will enable us to take up these challenges as a learning curve and move on with our tasks, without getting disturbed or emotionally drained. Because, unless we know or learn most or all aspects of a task, we cannot accomplish it.

Even after doing everything essential for a plant/tree to grow, still, the plant will take its own time to grow, and bear fruits, here we need patience, patience to allow it to grow and bear fruit which is the real culmination of our goal.

This completes a short note on what I call 3Ps of Goal Success. Although 3Ps may not be a comprehensive and complete set, I am sure they can serve as habits, one can develop, in his endeavor to set and attain one’s life goals.

Naveen Desai

Certified Life Coach