With Objectives – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

As we head toward the end of 2021, a lot has probably happened. The year flew by in the blink of an eye, and with it, I hope, came an awareness of how fast time and life move. Many companies, people and organizations go through life without specific objectives, let alone a clear vision to set their course. In my experience, the best progress check arrives with the new year, when many hopes and wishes that could have come true are left on the drawing board. What difference do objectives make?

A goal, a vision and an objective share one thing: the future. Whatever result we want sits in a tomorrow we don’t yet know, a future we know very little about and that can frighten us just by thinking or dreaming about it. I’ve seen how stepping into even the near future makes many people hesitate, mostly because of change. However positive, change can feel so overwhelming that we’d rather stay in our comfort zone. Why would someone who badly wants a result still be unable to accept the change it brings? A lack of clarity about their life purpose and, above all, about their objectives.

Living without objectives is like a ship sailing with no course. The odds of sailing into an avoidable storm are high, very high, and sadly that’s when you see companies trapped in turbulence that never seems to end. Someone with clear objectives can still end up in a storm, of course. Think of COVID-19: however clear your life purpose and objectives, there was no escaping the impact of the pandemic. Still, someone with a clear vision and clear goals is much better prepared, because they know they need to change tactics to stay on course.

The nature of an objective depends on whoever sets it. Ambitious or modest, an objective is simply a product of the intelligence of the person or people who created it. Objectives also rest heavily on our habits, on the processes we already have and on trust in everyone involved in reaching them. When an objective depends strictly on us, that trust comes from what we’ve achieved in the past and from how well the future we want aligns with the purpose that explains why we’re here. Companies depend on culture to execute and reach their objectives. They depend on their habits and on combining the intelligence of all their people to find new ways to the port they’re aiming for.

With or without objectives, the meaning of life has very strong features. We were born to have objectives, to fight for them and to find the tools (habits, for example) that get us there. Objectives are the step in between that leads us to live our life purpose, and purpose is a path we can keep living and enjoying, one that brings the happiness of finding meaning in life, with no final endpoint. A person or organization with clear objectives and a clear purpose has an inner fire capable of conquering any summit it sets out to climb and of finding resources where it never expected them. With clear objectives and a clear purpose, the world makes sense and the future becomes our greatest asset. All that’s left is to imagine it and build it.

Warm regards,

Rodrigo Baccaro

• This week’s VELA (what I was Watching, Listening to, Reading and Learning):
• What I was Watching: "Me prometí que nunca más tendría un mal día". Patch Adams, médico y clown. Another great find from my colleague and good friend Otto Velasquez, thank you. A short video about the man whose life inspired the movie starring Robin Williams
  – What I was Listening to: Jocko Podcast 112 w/ Jordan Peterson – Life is Hard. 12 Rules for Life. Possibly one of the best podcasts I’ve heard in 2021. Two heavyweights in the ring, Jordan Peterson and Jocko Willink, and well worth a listen
  – What I was Reading: El primer círculo. A book I’ve gone back to. I may need to devote this last quarter to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, especially The Gulag Archipelago
  – What I was Learning: WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP. A very good video, especially for those moments when you feel like throwing in the towel on a goal

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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