A somewhat simplistic idea is that a goal needs to be clear and measurable.
It’s actually an interesting challenge to capture what a goal can be in a given situation.
When we know the process and have an idea of how it can be repeated, it is easy to define a clear and measurable goal. This is probably also the only situation in which process, objective, and motivation easily align. Things seem to be repeatable, and growth, development, or learning is projectable. Surprises may still appear, but they will usually quickly transform into learning.
Goals of the big or challenging kind belong to a category where our imagination or fantasy allows us to visualize a goal. Nevertheless, such goals will contain a lot of unknowns that may be destabilizing. Overcoming this requires courage and that is how motivation comes into play. Discovering how we connect emotionally with such a goal generates clarity on what that goal is and why it is important. The measurable elements of such an objective will help capture when one reached one’s objective and assist in adapting the objective to reality as one progresses. Reaching such an objective is a transformation of a dream into reality. It is the emotional fuel that leads to sustainable motivation and helps to bear the unknown in the objective. As one progresses, the content and constraints of the objective gain clarity, leading to useful adaptations of the measurable elements of one’s objective.
But there are also objectives one may find hard to describe, imagine, or measure. Such goals may even seem simple or achievable and yet be experienced as overwhelming. That’s often the case when one doesn’t know what the outcome of a process is or what its experience will be. Someone who learns to paint may need to learn first what style is most accessible to them. Once they’ve developed a style, they might realize that something is lacking in the composition they can’t pinpoint. A basketball player who wants to become one of the top scorers in the NBA may feel lost at how and where to start. It’s simply not possible to predict who one will be as an artist or basketball player once one learns one’s craft. Such objectives require that we trust the process and believe in its ability to teach us what we need to learn and guide us on our journey. The challenge with such journeys is that we still have to figure out how that learning feels and is experienced. Trusting the process doesn’t help with measuring the elements helping us sense progress or learning. That is where experiments come in. Especially when experiments allow one to explore the different aspects of the experience one seeks to reach or experience as an outcome of the process. This type of objective asks us to not only trust the process but also find ways to confirm that trust. Experiments that allow us to discover and develop learning do that for us. The outcome of such experiments allows for some measures to appear. Knowing others who go through the same process and share their experience too.
