“We are the creative force of our life. And through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” — Stephen Covey
The year was 1990, and I was a young supervisor invited to a senior manager’s seminar designed by my company with the help of the Covey Leadership Center. My company, like many at the time, was drastically affected by the pressures of downsizing as we attempted to become more competitive in our markets. As an organization, we had experimented with employee project teams, Deming-style statistical methods, various forms of organization effectiveness and other types of quality improvement efforts. We wanted something more effective and sustainable so the seminar was born.
Upon being welcomed at the seminar, I was presented with this prediction: “You are about to experience what we hope is the most significant and important learning experience of your entire professional career. That may seem like a bold statement, but we truly believe it will be so for you.” Yes it was a bold statement but, more importantly, it turned out to be absolutely true.
I recently found a letter of opening night remarks from our leader Bob Walker. He said, “You may be somewhat surprised we are spending so much time on you and your talents and practices as a leader in our company over the next few days. Well, it is human nature most of us like to think the problems we face are caused by things outside of us. If only that other group or those other people would do something differently, then the problems would go away. In fact, that type of thinking is the problem. Every significant and lasting change we make in the company begins with us improving ourselves as individuals. We have to focus first on improving our own individual effectiveness.”
As I worked through the material in the seminar, I realized what quality improvement and leadership was really all about. It’s simple, as most sound principles and goals usually are. What I was attempting to do, better than I had ever done it before, was to unlock my creativity and talents and to let them flow as a part of my daily work and life. I needed my heart and mind focused on making improvements that would achieve greater satisfaction and enjoyment from my work. I could only do that by realizing all my talents and potential hidden deep inside of me.
I learned all effective leaders have one special quality in common. It is the quality of vision. Leaders have vision and if I wanted to lead at home, work and play, it was my responsibility to change my thinking from the past and current events and focus my energies on creating future oriented goals.
I learned one goal is not enough and goals should be created for all areas of my life. I call these my Heart’s Desire (HD) Goals. I created a graphic called HD Squares and use the nine categories for all my goal setting. The categories I use are health and body, travel and adventure, relationships, home, spiritual, possessions, creativity, career and financial.
Back in 1990, I began to imagine what my career would look like in the future. I imagined having a wonderful family life and developing loving and lasting relationships. I created an idea of what my ideal health and body would be like as I grew older. I imagined the things I would possess and the homes where I would live. I imagined a life of travel and adventure and the financial means to support all my needs. In addition, I imagined living a spiritual life of purpose and service. Using the HD Squares tool for goal imagining and setting keeps me focused on my own self improvement where all change occurs. I hope by sharing this goal planning and setting process you are inspired, in some way, to remain committed to living your heart’s desires.
For more information, contact Scott Whitelaw at scott@scottwhitelaw.com.
