“The broader the gap, the more challenged you are to get creative and committed.” – Thomas Leonard
SMART Goals
One of the more commonly used goal setting strategies that people use is known as SMART:
S: specific
M: measurable
A: attainable
R: realistic
T: timely
Many people have clearly explained the concept of the SMART system, so I am not going to review it here. For more information on how to use SMART to set your goals check here.
Is SMART always smart?
For the majority of your goals it is a good idea to follow the SMART system. However, at times, maybe it is better to ignore the “A” and “R” steps of this goal setting system.
What is wrong with making a goal attainable and realistic? Nothing. By making a goal both attainable and realistic you increase the likelihood of that goal being accomplished successfully.
What is the advantage of making a goal non-attainable and non-realistic?
You open yourself up to the process of evolution.
Thomas Leonard
I first came upon this idea while reading some of the written work of Thomas Leonard, the father of coaching. In his writing Thomas introduces the concept of “gapping”, which, in my interpretation, means to ignore making a goal attainable and realistic and “shoot for the stars”.
Gapping involves setting yourself a challenge that, chances are, is impossible, or almost impossible for you to succeed in accomplishing. The goal may involve skills you do not have, knowledge you are missing, or may have a time line that is too short to guarantee achievement. Some aspect of the goal makes it very difficult to achieve.
So, why attempt to gap a goal? I will let Thomas’ own words provide an answer:
” Take on an exciting goal or project that you cannot possibly accomplish. When the gap is this wide, mutation occurs.” – Thomas Leonard
Mutation and Evolution
By setting a possibly unreachable goal you push yourself. To have even a chance of succeeding in this impossible goal you will have to experiment, learn new skills, take risks, and go beyond your limits. Once the process is over, once you have tried all of these things, you are a different person: you have changed in some, and possibly many ways.
It does not matter if, in the end, you achieve the overall goal, what matters is that you made the attempt and improved yourself in the process. Not only will you improve yourself, but this evolution of who you are will have happened in a far shorter time span than you ever thought possible.
How to gap
Thomas’ writing did not go into specifics on how one should go about gapping, but I can see the process looking something like this:
1. Pick a goal that you have been putting off because it does not seem attainable or realistic: you don’t have the necessary skills, you are missing needed contacts, you are missing important information, you don’t have the time to complete it.
2. Set a specific result for the goal so that you are clear on what you are trying to achieve.
3. Set a clear measurement for the goal so you know when you succeed.
4. Set a short time period to achieve this goal so you stay focused on this challenging task.
5. Do whatever you need to and work as hard as you possibly can to achieve this goal in the time period you have set.
6. Determine how you have evolved from the experience, whether you were successful or not.
Does gapping work?
I have no idea. I have never tried it before, but I am going to give it a try now. Check back Friday when I pick the goal that I am going to attempt to gap, and then watch my progress in the coming weeks.
Even better: pick your own challenging goal that you would like to gap and add it to the comments section on Friday and join in on this experiment in goal setting.
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