A daily newsletter I read from time to time had me thinking today about goals. For years I have used David Allen’s Horizons of Focus Altitude Map; the structure submitted by Mr. Allen is designed to help us keep track of work and Life at various horizons, which “correspond to different altitudes of perspective.” [1] In other words, the higher we go, the more we should be able to see. Here is a summary for those unfamiliar with the altitude map.
50,000 ft. - Purpose and core values
40,000 ft. - Vision
30,000 ft. - Goals and objectives.
20,000 ft. - Areas of focus and responsibility
10,000 ft. - Projects.
Runway - Actions.
Based on the newsletter’s suggestion, I spent some time reviewing my 40,000 ft. - Vision of what my 30,000 ft. - Goals and objectives were supposed to represent, and I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that I don’t have any “broad, sweeping dreams.”
Startled by this revelation, I entered a near panic attack and wondered how this could be. Well, I still have dreams and lots of plans; I just haven’t reviewed them lately. So there they were tucked away nicely in my “Someday/Maybe” goals on TheBrain.
David Allen talks about the Someday/Maybe list in the book Getting Things Done. There is a space between having a dream, making a wish, setting a goal, and knowing when it is time to work on the destination. This limbo, Mr. Allen refers to as a Someday/Maybe list. The list can consist of dozens of intentions whose time has not yet come or maybe never will. Apart from day-to-day projects, the list is a holding area so that you can pay full attention to those things demanding your time now.
The Someday/Maybe list lost its common name when the movie Bucket List arrived on the scene. With Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman creating a list of the things they would like to do before they die, the manic character played by Jack Nicholson uses his Billions to ensure a comic romp around the world. However, the term Bucket List still pervades our vocabulary 14 years later (Release date January 11, 2008 (USA)).
I think the term Bucket List is unfortunate, or at the very least, the confusion between a Someday/Maybe list and a Bucket List is contradictory. When I first learned the Someday/Maybe list from David Allen, it became an instant repository for all my hopes and dreams. Because unlike the “Bucket List,” which consisted of things you’d like to do before you die, the Someday/Maybe list could hold anything I had my mind on that “maybe,” “someday,” I’d like to do, read, learn or tackle.
Places or activities didn’t limit the Someday/Maybe list; it could also include skills I wanted to learn or talents I wanted to develop. The list could also include whole projects for home renovation, landscape ideas, and things that Someday I wish to have, live or give to others.
When sometimes, I wonder, “does any of this matter?” Does any of the writing, tracking, and planning matter? All I need to do is visit my TheBrain section of “Life is not a Journey.” Mark Frost wrote this quote in his book The Match: the Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, and I’ve used the quote as a reminder of my completed someday/maybe list items, whose time eventually came.
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty, well preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow, what a ride!’”
From my “Life is not a Journey,” I have connected links to places I’ve visited and things I’ve done, and then I realize, yes! It is all worth it: the planning, the work, the expense. If I didn’t do those things, days, months, and years could slip by without me going anywhere.
Contains elements from Journal Entry dated November 6, 2020 8:04 am
Written: July 31, 2022
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Reference
[1] Allen, David. Horizons of Focus White Paper, GTD / Connect 1990-2006.