Beyond SMART Goals
"A solution is a linear endpoint to a problem defined in linear causality. Complex problems do not operate within this linearity... The thinking that has produced out current understanding of our world as a mechanistic, separated, or siloed system also describes our current global crisis as such. Food systems, sexism, climate change, addiction, racism, economic inequality, and so on are all consequences of several hundred years of exploitation."
This is from Nora Bateson's brilliant book, Combining. It reflects my enormous frustrations with huge portions of the coaching, wellness and self development industries where we are relentlessly sold things like
my 5 step process
this foolproof method
the only blueprint you will ever need!
…as prescriptive, narrow, lifeless solutions to our complex, transcontextual, dynamic difficulties.
Often on coaching calls when I will be seeking to establish a desired outcome for the session, after some discussion the client will conclude that it's something like
I just want to understand my thinking around this better
Having recently been through my own accreditation process, I've been thinking a lot about goals- the clients' and my own. My own ENORMOUS resistance to coming up with anything resembling a goal for my business or my life.
For some time, I've believed myself to be somewhat wounded by
some of the GirlBoss shenanigans I'd been caught up in
the relentless disappointments of the last 5 years from the implications of Covid to my own health to everyone I feel let down by as the polycrisis rumbles on
This is all probably true. I've had a sense that my resistance to goal setting is something to be fixed, eventually, when I'm up to it. I see it differently now. I believe my relationship with goal setting is also a reasonable response to my developing world view.
I have desires, I have longings, I have yearnings. They are vibrant and vague. They are more about feelings than anything else.
OF COURSE I need to give some consideration to the steps I need to take in those directions, and any number of practicalities around them. But I won't adhere to systemic norms that give us things like SMART GOALS to MAXIMISE or OPTIMISE etc etc.
Let me air my grievances with SMART goals for a bit as it's a good example of ways in which we seek to oversimplify life and treat ourselves and each other like machines... (to be clear, I'm making drama to bring some points to life, it's totally fine of course if you find this stuff useful as we move through life in these systems. And, you might find it interesting to interrogate some of it).
Specific- don't get me wrong, there are times when specificity is really important- like in surgery, or on transport routes- but there are other contexts where a broader, more agile and flexible approach to outcomes could be more supportive. Perhaps if we are more specific about what we want to achieve, we have less visibility of everything going on around it. I want this income, I want this promotion, and I stop noticing what it's costing me. I didn't achieve it, and it's harder to see all the things I did achieve instead.
Measurable- by what metrics? Because these are not neutral. Where might I be mistaking the prevalence of any particular metric for my own inherent regard or level of preference or need for a particular thing? £10,000 month. 10,000 steps. Couch to 5K. 100 days of gratitude. 50 books in a year. Finding it extremely suspicious tbh that these round numbers on this made up scale are positioned as desirable.
Achievable- this is probably my least fave. Where do we end up when we elevate goals that we perceive as 'achievable'? We end up... here. Where we already are. Doing the same things we've always done, or that others have already done. Nothing about this seems interesting to me. And. What is achievable to me depends significantly on my context, which is shifting all the time.
Relevant- OK fine, they can have this one. Kinda. As long as it's relevant to those actual yearnings that meet our needs, rather than some performance of prosperity or status that matches other people's expectations.
Time- when though, when are you gonna get it done? First of all, linear time is a construct. (Can't wait to say this when I get a call about my son's homework being late at his extremely strict new school). But also, I dunno babes- whether it's your neurotype, caring responsibilities, health stuff, menstrual cycle, rejection of the Roman calendar concept of the year- there are so many reasons why we might not be able to 'achieve' something on time or make a good estimate of how long something will take.
So what am I doing instead?
I'm asking myself things like
how do I want to be right now in relation to my longings?
how might I like to meet the moment?
what parts of myself and my context will resource me?
Back to Nora...
"...let's talk about changing the conditions within which interrelational independence can take place. Most problems today were once solutions." (An example that stands out is women's participation in Capitalism in a way that mirrors men's).
What problems might you now have that were once solutions?
What conditions would support your interrelational flourishing?
If you’re ready for some non-linear reflection and ideation, you might like my upcoming workshop, explore the Ecology of Your Year, linked here.
It’s on Wednesday 11th December, £35 or Pay What You Can Afford.
