Balancing Progress and Achievement
I’m continuing my written series of paradigm shifts with the difference between progress and achievement. I wrote about this originally by describing direction versus destination. You can read that article here.
I’ve spent more time thinking about the subtle differences between progress and achievement and am realizing that instead of thinking one or the other, they should be balanced and blended in your life. I had an experience over Christmas break that showed me the benefit of both.
Over the last year, I started hiking with my kids. My goal was to build their stamina enough that we could tackle some hikes in the national parks Utah is famous for. Over Christmas break, we felt ready enough to try a hike at Zions. You could easily have written a SMART goal for my plans: On Dec 30, the Coleman family will hike to the middle Emerald Pools at Zion’s national park. We will wake up early, dress in hiking clothes (with backup options for weather), pack food, and travel to Zions to make this happen. To document our success, we’ll take pictures and videos to post on social media. We had a plan. We were ready and excited for this adventure. And then, life came to play…
On the morning of, we were late getting out the door. (This is not a surprise. I have children.) Undaunted, I plugged “Zions” into my phone GPS, and we got started. Unfortunately, I did not realize that there is a main entrance to Zions and a north entrance to Zions. The north entrance is a separate area for Kolob Canyon and I picked the north one on my GPS without realizing my mistake. Gratefully, the park ranger at the Kolob Canyon station was very kind. He armed us with a map, a pass, and tips for getting to the main entrance before sending us on our way. He also told us that today was the first day that the holiday shuttles were no longer running, so expect it to be extra busy.
Can you see where this is headed?
After our accidental hour and a half detour, we were finally at the gates for the park. I was frantically trying to study the map so I could shout directions to my husband. The number of people who had come to see the canyon that day was unprecedented, and we found ourselves part of a slow-moving cavalcade. Still, I had my goal. We were going to do this hike! I had spent so much time preparing! I knew what I wanted to achieve, and I didn’t want to be swayed from it!
As we drove along, there was a closed road, and rangers were directing all cars in another direction. I assumed that we were still headed on the road with the hikes and so, as we drove through some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world, I was completely absorbed with my map, only glancing up to try to find mile-markers for my original goal. Another hour later and no mile markers in sight, I realized that we were on a different road… and we had gone far enough that we weren’t even on the map anymore. Not only were we not going to make the hike I had planned, but I had missed enjoying the scenery of a world-famous scenic drive because I was so absorbed with my original goal.
Now, if I’m overly focused on achievement, this day can be seen as a complete failure. The only part of my SMART goal that I hit was getting dressed and packing food! In fact, I could argue that we had wasted our time. However, since I’ve also been embracing the concept of progress, I’ve found that when it comes to personal development, there is no such thing as wasted time.
So, let’s take a deeper look at achievement versus progress. SMART goals are built for achievement. They can help foster motivation, provide accountability, and be a finish line for when you’re done. However, they are not complete. They operate on the assumption that you have control of the variables that will influence your goal. We have some control, but not all control. If we allow ourselves to be disheartened when life gets in the way, our SMART goals can completely fall apart, and we’ll lose both the motivation to continue and the achievement we were seeking in the first place. SMART goals are great for getting started. They are terrible, however, at measuring truly progressive growth. This is largely because some of our most profound growth will come from the experiences we didn’t choose.
So how do we measure progress? Over the last two years, I’ve learned that I need to spend as much time reflecting backward as I do dreaming forward. As I learn to validate and measure the growth I didn’t expect, I become more open to the flexibility life will require of me. This has helped me learn to set goals for a destination that will get me started in the direction I want to go AND to not use the destination itself as my only definition of success.
Although we didn’t hike the Emerald Pools, my family saw our trip to Zions as a success. We were directed to another hike that, although it didn’t have any waterfalls, still had amazing views. We also learned a lot about the operating procedures of the park and are excited about how we’ll navigate them the next time we return. The fact that we want to return is one of the best outcomes of choosing to view our trip from a progress mindset as well as an achievement mindset. If I had seen the trip as a failure (due to my achievement mindset), I’m far less likely to want to return to a place full of frustration and regret. Even then, if we had achieved what we wanted, we also probably would not have returned because we had checked that goal off. Both of those results are anti-growth. Our detours gifted us the chance to come back and our preparation for the original goal set us up to be ready for the detours we were given. This was the balance of both achievement and progress.
Thanks for reading with me today. I hope you find balance for both building control and embracing change in your week this week.