A is for Art of the Possible
Career insights from a former Googler
There are a lot of A words! Awesome, amazing, alive, abundant, amoeba, archetype, alliteration, alluring, allegory, aloof, awareness, asinine, amygdala and albatross; to name a few. But I have to say one of my favorite A words is art, both as a noun and colloquially as a verb. As I shared in my blog post “I’ve Got Career Itchy Feet”, I developed a love of reading at an early age. I adore book; old school books and ebooks. Fiction and non-fiction. I’m a true bibliophile. And, a natural by-product of loving to read is appreciation (another A word) of words and how gifted writers use words to create a picture, a feeling, a sound, a story. I wonder what a logophile and a bibliophile together equals? But, I digress. I remember seeing in high school, during a retreat weekend called “Search”, a play on the word “impossible”, where someone simply added an apostrophe (another A word) and a space to make it: “I’m possible”. Fast forward to 2007, I had a big corporate job at headquarters and my team started pointing out to me that I have these fun sayings they coined Melissa-isms. And, the saying ‘the art of the possible’ was one of them. I used it during a planning discussion. The leadership team was struggling to see options for a current business challenge. We created a space for them to create art, to play, to ideate in a more free form way. They moved from impossible to I’m possible to the Art of the Possible. It was a powerful process.
SMART Goaling
The SMART goal setting process is equally as powerful, especially applied to your career or life. In earlier blog posts I talked at AIM (another A word) and SMART end goals. As a reminder, SMART stands for:
S = Simple and Specific
M = Measurable and Meaningful to me
A = Achievable, As if Now, All Areas of my life
R = Responsible / Ecological, Realistic
T = Timed and Toward what I want
Today we’ll unpack the “A”.
A stands for Achievable, As if Now, All areas of my life. In other words the Art of the Possible.
All of these A(s) collectively can be summarized as the art of the possible. SMART goals came from research that began in the 60s with Dr. Edwin Locke and Dr. Gary Lantham. Others have added the importance of the mindest, both conscious and unconscious, in goal work, like Richard Bandler and John Grinder founders of Neurolingusitic Programming (NLP).
Achievable. You have to believe that with focus and action on your part your goal is possible. Most people assume that their goal can be achieved. Yes, that’s a good mindset to have AND, by doing the work to verify it (some research), you are telling your BIG YOU (unconscious mind) and little you (conscious mind) that it is indeed possible; I’m possible. At the same time the goal needs to be challenging enough to get you energized and motivated. If you set a goal that is just ‘meh’, you’ll get ‘meh’. If you stretch, get uncomfortably excited, your actions and behaviors will line up to support your progress.
As if Now means to write your narrative in the present tense.. I AM possible. I’m an SVP at a Fortune 500 company, for example. By writing in the present tense, again, it creates momentum and energy around your thoughts, actions and feelings associated with the goal. Of course, you will be incorporating words that align to your highest rated values with your narrative.
All areas of your life means to test to make sure your goal will be supported across the important areas of your life; family, relationship, health / fitness, personal development, spiritually, etc. The goal needs to fit in, complement and make sense across the board. For example, if you are currently oversubscribed with your current job, commute time, family obligations, workout schedule; how will this goal get accomplished? What trade offs are you willing to make? If you take time away from family or your primary relationship to invest more time to your career goal, is that feasible? Have you discussed this and have support from your family or partner to do this?
I hope you found my insights on the A in SMART goals helpful. As adults we spend the bulk of our waking hours ‘at work’. We only have a finite amount of time on this planet, and you can choose how to spend that time. I wish you much success on your career quest. Yours in balance, learning, growth and harmony. – Melissa DeLuca, CEO
