Their Goals Versus Your Goals

Sharon, a business client who is an executive in the music industry, once told me, “Goals don’t work for me.” “How do you know that?” I asked. “I never accomplish the goals I set for myself,” she replied. I responded with another question: “What is the last goal you set for yourself?” “I guess I formally stopped setting goals in high school after I didn’t make my goal of getting a college basketball scholarship,” she answered. I asked her to think back to high school. “Do you remember if you took the time to really focus on exactly ‘what it takes’ to get the attention of college coaches [prolife in general, which includes sports but is not limited to athletics. To figure out your personal vision, you must figure out who you want to be and how you want to live. In other words, what kind of life do you want for yourself, and what things do you want to accomplish? How do you want to go about becoming that person and fulfilling your aspirations? Vision integrity is the guidepost for living your life. The “vision” part comes from identifying the three most important aspects of your life that you want to prioritize. For example, Vince Lombardi always said what mattered most was God, family, and the Green Bay Packers. His vision in life was to have a strong relationship with God, be a great husband and father, and achieve excellence in his career as a football coach. The three priorities for Lombardi were God, family, and the Green Bay Packers (career). The “integrity” portion of vision integrity is living your life on a daily basis in a way that will help you achieve your vision. A person makes thousands of decisions every day. Let your vision be the guide in making those decisions. Have the integrity to live each minute of every day in a manner that will bring you closer and closer to your vision. To have integrity takes a tremendous amount of insight (you must know what your vision is) and discipline. Coach Lombardi is a classic example of an individual who lived his life with vision integrity. Numerous books have been written documenting Lombardi’s motivation, commitment, and perseverance to his vision. He was clear on what he wanted and he made decisions each and every day that helped him realize his goals. Be sure that your ultimate, product, and process goals for sport fall in line with your vision and strive to have integrity everyday. Ask yourself on a daily basis, What are