The Three Types of Goals

By Jayne Johnson

Goals could be categorised into 3 types:

1. Type One is the goal that you know you can and will attain, if you just put your mind to it and get busy on it. You know what to do; it’s just a matter of doing it. It may be a brand new goal or a goal that you’ve been wanting to achieve for a long time. Whether a new goal or an old one, this is the “I absolutely know that I can accomplish this if I just get on with it” type of goal.

2. Type Two is the goal that is old and has been hanging around a long time - it can feel heavy, if it has a pile of failures, i.e., failed attempts, sitting on top of it. You want it and you think you can attain it, but you have procrastinated or have failed to attain it in the past, and that can lead to self-doubt and an avoidance of even looking at it or thinking about it. This is the “Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times – could I or will I also be that heroic and persist through my failed attempts and be successful?” type goal.

3. Type Three is what we might call the “lofty goal”, “gleam goal” or in some cases, the “pie-in-the-sky-goal.” How attainable it is depends not only on one’s attitude (context) but also on native talent, level of skill, level of education and/or knowledge, and many other factors relative to content. It is the type of goal about which you feel uncertain, doubtful. The target is extremely high and you’re not sure if you can really attain it.

Typically, inherent in all three types of goals is an element of fear.

In Type One, the fear-thought is, “I know I can do it but will I actually get on it and do it? Will I follow through?”

The Type Two fear-thought will usually involve worry and a lot of “what-if’s”. “What if I fail again?”, “What if I can’t make the present different than the past?”, “What if….?”

The Type Three fear-thought is, “I really want this, but I’m not sure I have the ability, the talent, the knowledge, etc., to actually accomplish it”.

Whether fear stops us our forward progress or not depends entirely on us and our attitude. The way I see it, goal-setting is a game, and by definition, a game must have challenges. Without them, there is no game – you can “win” because there is absolutely nothing to stop you from winning.

Fear-thoughts, then, are simply obstacles that are part of the game! And when you persist and find a way to blow through them, eventually you reach the goals you set and you feel great!

A game is supposed to be FUN. The reason we play a game is to have challenges, overcome them, and win the game. Then we have to find a new game! It’s all pretty comical, when you think about it! So, let’s have some fun with it!"