Smart Goals One Bolt at a Time
"A Perfect Storm of Turbulent Gases"
Goal planning for most of us is a real challenge. And often the follow-through is also difficult. Even when we are highly motivated to reach a personal goal, we can become overwhelmed and lose focus.
My goals, perhaps like yours, often involve making a lot of small steps on the road to fruition. And often I get distracted by thinking about some aspect that I don’t know yet how to complete, and lose track of where I am in the process.
On Monday’s post I commented on the movie, “Hubble,” the story of the last mission to repair the giant space telescope. One of the points that impressed me had to do with reaching goals.
The astronauts had a daunting task ahead of them. They had to complete a number of difficult mechanical and technical repairs and do this in a weightless, deeply cold and airless environment. And they were wearing bulky spacesuits which were tethered to the shuttle, as were all the tools that they used.
Their gloves were especially vulnerable as they manipulated the tools and the telescope parts they were replacing. A cut to the glove would allow air to escape and would be fatal.
They practiced the maneuvers over and over again in a replica of the equipment which was in a deep pool of water to give them the best sense of weightlessness possible. They were well prepared, but of course things happen in real life that are unexpected, and their teamwork and ability to problem solve would certainly be called for.
There were some very tense moments when one team had problems loosening a bolt and then later removing a screw. They were stuck and for awhile it looked like the whole mission might be compromised or scrapped. It took hours for them to complete the task.
One of the astronauts said that he adopted a Zen approach. By this he meant that he focused on just one screw or bolt at a time. He wasn’t thinking about the whole mission, or the myriad of other screws and what if they were ALL this difficult to remove?! Instead, he focused only on the screw at hand.
I was impressed. His approach was simple and wise. Not necessarily easy though. He had trained his mind to focus on just one thing and to complete that one task before he began thinking about another. Self discipline.
We can all learn to do this. Even though sometimes I think the human mind is a lot like a band of monkeys, running around being unruly, and when alarmed, shrieking and jumping about causing a lot of commotion. It’s hard to get anything done when our thoughts are like that.
With practice, you can learn to focus your mind on one step in reaching your personal goals, business goals or career goals. That’s really all we can accomplish anyway…just the one step at hand.
Photo credit: ESA,NSA, and J. Hester, Arizona State U.
The idea of focus and completing a cycle before going on to something else is really the key to keeping confusion at bay. When I can’t think and my life is upside down… it’s usually because of unfinished cycles. I have to stop and complete loose ends. When I do… I always feel better.
I know what you mean about how those loose ends are a plague. My office looks like a tangle of them! My weekend work goal is to get them completed and cleared up.
Thanks for writing.
Janet