In the workplace, people talk a lot about setting goals, achieving goals, surpassing goals.
I guess that’s reasonable enough for organizations. If you sell 5,000 widgets this month and can sell 10,000 next month, that’s good for the company, and you may feel personal satisfaction, too. You may get a trophy for being widget-seller of the month or a free pizza — maybe even a promotion.
Some people do serious goal setting in their nonwork lives, too. I have a colleague who is helping her husband start a church. Another colleague recovered from a life-threatening event, decided to grab the gusto, and now pushes herself to skydive, dance all night, and launch her own company while working full-time elsewhere.
Personally, I don’t think I have goals. At least not Big Hairy Audacious ones (as Jim Collins and Jerry Porras said in an article I worked on back in the day).
I have finally realized that small accomplishments give me more satisfaction: get the document with the metadata to the webmaster by the end of the day; figure out how to connect the new printer to the home computer; remember to mail two packages on Tuesday; make soup.
What gives you satisfaction?
