Creating Your Choosing Toolkit
Creating Your Choosing Toolkit
Transcript
I think whether you're talking to somebody coming out of the military or whether you're talking to an executive, I think the process is the same, and the process is just as difficult. So what I'm going to do now is describe to you what I call the choosing tool kit that you can use to start to answer those really big questions in your life.
And so I think the first question you want to ask yourself is, what are my goals? And that means you want to ask yourself, what do I want to accomplish one year from today? What do I want accomplish five years from today? And what do I want to accomplish 10 years from today? And this is something I ask every single student that I teach in my leadership course. And it's really important to not just come up with your goals but to actually write it down and explain it to a trusted other.
So for example, one of the most important studies, at least one of my favorite studies, is a study that was done with college graduates. As they were graduating they were asked to either think about what did they want to accomplish right here, up in their heads, or they jotted it down, or they jotted it down and they shared it with a trusted other. It turned out that the people who jotted it down achieved 50% more, the people who jotted it down and shared it with a trusted other achieved 75% more.
And so it's not enough to simply think, oh yes, I know my goals. It really is important to write it down because it forces you to think it through. And then when you share it with another, that further enables you to hear yourself talk about it. It also ensures that you get feedback and that you're held accountable.
Now we're not saying that when you jot down your goals, you're actually going to achieve what you said you're going to achieve. Most of us change our minds. What I am going to tell you is that every six months, you do this goals exercise. And every six months, you do this goals exercise, and that means you now have an opportunity to revise, maybe you want to pivot, and that's fine.
The most important purpose that the goals exercise serves is it gives you a compass. It enables you to better understand all this information coming at you, all the ideas people are giving you, and enables you to say, well, does that make sense for me? And as you answer that question, now you're able to say, no, no, no, no, no. Most of your job as a chooser is dumping out the irrelevant choices so that you can zero in on that handful of most relevant choices.
So I think that is absolutely the very first step in helping yourselves out, is asking yourself that really critical question-- what do I want to accomplish in one year, five years, and 10 years?
And so I think the first question you want to ask yourself is, what are my goals? And that means you want to ask yourself, what do I want to accomplish one year from today? What do I want accomplish five years from today? And what do I want to accomplish 10 years from today? And this is something I ask every single student that I teach in my leadership course. And it's really important to not just come up with your goals but to actually write it down and explain it to a trusted other.
So for example, one of the most important studies, at least one of my favorite studies, is a study that was done with college graduates. As they were graduating they were asked to either think about what did they want to accomplish right here, up in their heads, or they jotted it down, or they jotted it down and they shared it with a trusted other. It turned out that the people who jotted it down achieved 50% more, the people who jotted it down and shared it with a trusted other achieved 75% more.
And so it's not enough to simply think, oh yes, I know my goals. It really is important to write it down because it forces you to think it through. And then when you share it with another, that further enables you to hear yourself talk about it. It also ensures that you get feedback and that you're held accountable.
Now we're not saying that when you jot down your goals, you're actually going to achieve what you said you're going to achieve. Most of us change our minds. What I am going to tell you is that every six months, you do this goals exercise. And every six months, you do this goals exercise, and that means you now have an opportunity to revise, maybe you want to pivot, and that's fine.
The most important purpose that the goals exercise serves is it gives you a compass. It enables you to better understand all this information coming at you, all the ideas people are giving you, and enables you to say, well, does that make sense for me? And as you answer that question, now you're able to say, no, no, no, no, no. Most of your job as a chooser is dumping out the irrelevant choices so that you can zero in on that handful of most relevant choices.
So I think that is absolutely the very first step in helping yourselves out, is asking yourself that really critical question-- what do I want to accomplish in one year, five years, and 10 years?