What’s your most important Goal? Not your biggest Goal, because size has nothing to do with importance when it comes to Goals. There’s often a correlation, meaning that being important isn’t what makes a Goal big. And being a big Goal doesn’t make it important. So what makes a Goal big, and what makes a Goal important? Big can mean different things. It can mean the number of people involved, how much effort something will take, how much it will cost, the effect it will have on your life or the impact it will make on the world. Not all of these have to be large for something to be a “big” Goal, only one. So. if a Goal takes 40 people to do, that’s a lot; it’s probably safe to call that big.
If I have a Goal to travel to every continent before I die, that’s a pretty big Goal for most of us. It’s going to check just about each of those boxes. It’s going to take several more people than myself to plan and execute something like this. It’s going to take a lot of effort to do all the things you have to do to travel outside your own country, much less to other continents. It’s going to cost quite a bit in terms of time and money too. It’s going to have a huge impact on me as well as I’m exposed to other cultures, people, foods and customs. It’s also going to have an impact on more than just me, though not hundreds of people. It will impact my family, my children, the people I work with, the people who I hire to help me do this trip from travel agents to tour guides and it will impact all the people I meet in some small way.
This would, by most definitions, be one of the biggest Goals I could have based on all that. We tend to want to assign importance to the bigger Goals, but it doesn’t mean it’s my most important Goal. Importance is more about the emotional attachment we have to our Goals and what we feel we’ll get out of them besides a sense of achievement. One of my most important Goals is to rekindle my creativity by drawing regularly and reading more to stimulate the creative parts of my mind. For me they go hand-in-hand. It’s important to me, because drawing has always been one of my most loved things to do. It doesn’t cost much, take a lot of people or have much effect on the world. I believe it will have a great effect on me, in the sense that it will make me more fulfilled and satisfied with my life. I’ll be more creative which will bleed into other aspects of my life.
The only big part will be the time and effort it takes to do it. I have to set aside time to do it and make it a habit. Just as writers write, artists draw. Even that becomes a small thing as the habit is created, nourished and made permanent. The ongoing reading to stimulate my mind and drawing to express my creativity becomes so much a part of my life that it’s second nature, as are all good habits.
Don’t let size and scope trick you into assigning a false value to your Goals. Bigger isn’t always better or more important.
