video transcript below
It is mid-December, we are almost in the new year.
You can tell it's the holidays. I am in my full Grinch-mas glory. I'm setting up my janky goals for 2023. I hope that you join me.
There are S.M.A.R.T. goals, but especially if you're neuro-spicy like me, I want to introduce you to the idea of J.A.N.K.Y. goals.
Um, janky goals? What’s that?!
Well, I'm so glad you asked. J.A.N.K.Y. goals are something that I made up because smart goals just weren't cutting it for me. No offense to smart goals. If they work for you, keep it going! Excellent. But for some of us, they don't work.
For me smart goals - right which is an acronym. it's about having specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals - it's just getting super specific on some arbitrary things and it wasn't motivating and it wasn't helpful for me personally and how to actually reach those goals. I needed something more. I needed something deeper. I needed something also that had room for me to be imperfect.
So, janky goals!
What does JANKY mean?
If a friend growing up had kind of like an older beat-up car we might say that it was janky. I mean in some ways it's just barely holding on. It's still getting the job done, but it was far from perfect.
Here in Sacramento there's even a slogan or catchphrase that you'll hear or see around town that's “Keep Midtown Janky” and I love it! Not only is janky super fun to say, but I also just love what it means. Because at its core what it means is that it knows it's not perfect. It's imperfect and in being imperfect it is completely special and unique and it's not trying to be perfect and I I love that sentiment. And that is the energy in which I'm kind of using to talk about these janky goals.
For your goal to be janky your goals need to be
Journey focused
Aligned with your values
Nourishing
Kick-Ass
and you need to have a
Yo-yo plan
Let me explain each piece. To be Journey focused means to think about where you're going. What is the destination? It's about setting an intention for what you want to achieve. A journey focused goal knows how to differentiate between the tasks and the goal. It's not just the things that you're doing, it is the big picture of where you are going.
Aligned with your values. Why is this important to you? This goal that you just set, think about why it is important to you and name that impact. The value alignment- this is the kind of
thing that will help you get out of bed in the morning and move towards these goals if you understand deeply the impact that this goal will have for you.
Nourishing. A janky goal should nourish your mind, body, and soul. Think about the ways in which this goal, not just the goal once you reach it, but as you're moving towards it. The ways in which it's going to nourish you as you're reaching your goal. There is there is something valuable that's happening for you. There's a nourishment that is happening mind, body, and soul. Be specific. Understand what also you get from doing this.
Your goal should Kick-Ass! It should be a kick-ass goal. It should be something that gets your heart pumping, that gets you excited and even if it's a little bit nervous and you're feeling like “oh my gosh, this is a big goal!” GOOD. There should be some feeling behind it. When you have a goal if you have set something and there’s no emotion to it, it might be too easy. And when things are too easy, if you're like me - you might be neurodivergent, on that definitely that neuro spicy scale - when things are too easy they are not exciting for my brain. I have no interest in doing them. So for me a goal has to have a level of excitement and challenge so it feels like I actually am reaching for something.
And that's what I call that kick-ass-ness. It is something that you feel like you gotta kind of pump yourself up to make happen and that is exciting because we are not here to play it safe. So your goal needs to be kick ass!
A yo-yo plan. This is an important piece of setting janky goals because we don't always have the same level of energy day in and day out. Some days I have a lot of energy and I can do so much and move the needle forward and some days I just am barely getting through. And I don't want to only work on my goals on the days where I have all of the energy. I want every day to be moving towards this goal. I want every moment, every opportunity, to seize these goals that I have set for myself. A yo-yo plan asks you to think about when you're high with energy or when you're low with energy and every space in between; what are those specific tasks, now we're talking about the tasks right, the specific tasks that you could do to move towards your goal?
You have set your course, right? You know exactly where it is that you're going. And in the metaphor of this we're heading towards that journey focused goal and as we're heading there our values are the compass, we have everything that we need as we're going there to take care of ourselves, and get to this goal. Making sure that we're continuously nourishing ourselves; our mind, our body, our soul, in the pursuit of this goal. We are doing something big and audacious and Kick-Ass and this yo-yo plan is recognizing that the wind in our sails will not always be constant. So on those days where we have big gusts of wind, great, what are the advantages? What are the things that we can do? And on days where there's no wind in our sails, what are the things that we can still do to feel like we're moving toward the goal?
It’s not about being perfect. It is about being clear and moving towards who you want to be imperfections and all.
If you're a manager looking for support in setting goals for yourself and your team, we offer workshops, leadership coaching, and virtual meetings, so schedule a complimentary call with us and let's get started!
Comments