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Setting Goals … NOT!

Posted by Joseph Riggio on Thursday, August 17, 2006

I have found in my research that a better way to acheive your outcomes may be to give up all sense of certainty and learn to “Go With The Flow” ... the very best, “Exquisite Performers,” have learned to this ... well, “exquisitely” of course!

Howdy,

Each day begins anew and yet it doesn't always seem that way. The "data" from the past seems to keep rolling into the future. However, more accurately, the present only "references" the past, and then only as we allow it.

What I find that most everyone who tries to make sense of their life finds themselves doing includes, at least at first, trying to make sense of the past - because the past "seems" present still. Here we are and for all intents and purposes it seems that what's going on now reflects what has been happening - the illusion ... "that the past carries forward."

The "past" references what has happened and no longer exists. The events of the past have shaped what we now experience to some extent, yet we actually get to choose what to make of the present anew in each moment. However, how many people actually get this, let alone do this???

Each moment we get to decide what the events we are experiencing mean and what we will be doing in regard to them going forward. I like to simplify it:

"So This ... Now What?"

In essence, I'm asking myself this question to generate a process I'm running internally:

"So This (what I'm experiencing in the moment, including all the data that I am capable of being present to) ... Now What (in regard to the outcomes I intend, what I want to be true of and for me - what am I going to do given the present situation, conditions and data - as they reference and inform my actions in regard to what I intend)

I find this process extremely valuable when I am working with clients as well - in terms of both my work with them, and teaching them to run this process for themselves. What I find really interesting has been the response my clients have had when learning to operate this process for themselves as well. They report back to me that it has changed the entire way they go about organizing themselves and producing their outcomes. Instead of setting goals and then frantically doing everything they can to produces them, my clients begin to simply set an outcome condition they want to attain and then reference everything against that.

Now this might sound remarkably like goal setting to those unfamiliar with this process, however a major difference exists in the two:

  • In goal setting one sets the outcome and the process for achieving it -

    e.g.: S.M.A.R.T. goals ... Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely


  • In the process I'm outlining, what I call the "Exquisite Performance Coaching Process, you only set the outcome position -

    e.g.: What do I/we want to be true of and for myself/us and then you put that into context?

    • In the process I'm outlining here you ability to remain present in the moment AND to reference simultaneously where you are going at all times becomes essential to being effective:

    Instead of "knowing" (an illusion in all cases anyway as far as I'm concerned) based on facts that reside in the past that you've projected forward, you rely on the certainty that what you want to be true has already happened in some future state - and that future state has all the information necessary to bring itself into being.

    Whoooeeee! ... bring out the voodoo, hoodoo hounds, we must be on the trail of some crazy, esoteric stuff, huh?!?! In a way yes, but in a way no. Instead of "conjuring" up some formula to produce outcomes, what I did was observe how exquisite performers did their exquisite performances ... and I found out this was the "mojo" they used.

    The most exquisite performers I could find set up their outcomes as follows:

    Contextual - e.g.: Tiger Woods wants to play as well as he can given the course and the conditions at the time of his playing, not based on some preconceived "ideal" game.

    Dynamic - e.g.: The measurement standard constantly gets updated based upon current conditions, not the conditions that were in place at the time that the outcome was organized.

    Overperformance - e.g.: The standard for performance doesn't rely on what has already been accomplished, but on what hasn't yet been accomplished.

    Future-Based - e.g.: The outcome gets set on the desired performance regardless of previous performance, an assumption gets made that the desired performance exists and can inform the performer with regard to how to create it.

    Non-Linear - e.g.: The performance takes it's own course - adjusting and compensating as necessary to get to the outcome, no assumption gets made regarding the "steps" that the performance will take.

    In essence this model of creating exquisite performance relies on the power of uncertainty within absolute certainty ... or the resolution of a seeming paradox. The performer allows for a context of absolute uncertainty, accepting that the events that will unfold in the context cannot be know with any reasonable degree of certainty - yet the desired outcome can be know with absolute certainty and that, adjustments made in each moment based on the actual conditions present in that moment in regard to producing the desire outcome will bring about the eventual realization of it ... regardless of any and all evidence to the contrary in any given moment.

    NOW THAT'S POWERFUL! Ultimately I can make this all simple:

    Give up all desire for any certainty, except that which you hold in your own mind ...

    "Give Up The "How" and Keep The "What"

    I've found this to be the single "trick" of all exquisite performers ... "giving up the how and keeping the what." They decide absolutely "what they want" and tenaciously hold onto that, while completely allowing for absolute uncertainty in "how they will produce it." This requires both acts of great faith and great courage.

    Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
    Tiburon, CA

    Finally ... I've gotten the production of the EPC(tm) Series One Audio CD Set finished!!! This is a four CD and one Video CD set, with the full workshop manual included as well, about the EPC2 - Exquisite Performance Coaching Process. I'm making this last offer to purchase at the discounted price until 31 August 2006 ... after that the price will increase without exceptions!

    To read more about this package and order it directly for the discounted price while you still can go to: EPC(tm) - Series One (2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

    I may have encountered some of this in the various trainings of yours that I have attended, however this last posting just seemed so clear and elegant today.... much appreciated ... many thanks
    Paul

    Paul Burger on Friday, August 18, 2006

    Once upon a time there was a vision. And a plan. And the plan was for the plan to deliver the vision.  Now the vision was exciting, alluring, sexy and so, so desirable. The plan, which was none of these things, would be needed because, well, nothing gets done without one does it? All smart people know that. 
    Enough already.  We are ready to take a big step here in my business, the width of the Atlantic ocean in fact; we know what we want...and the the beauty of the vision is breathtaking.
    So let’s go, let’s go enjoy the ride, it’ll be spectacular.  Plan! What plan?
    Thanks Joseph, your message arrived with exquisite timing.
    Paul

    Paul Lalwan on Friday, August 18, 2006

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