Above is Foujan sharing her current BHAG - to become proficient in HTML by December 2009. See her discovery and where she ended up!
If you have no destination, you'll likely end up someplace else.
It's been almost a year now, and when I look back on the person I was then, and the person I am now... I'm amazed. I came out of university with little direction, but I knew a few things: I wanted to take a year off and find myself, I wanted to discover whether or not I truly loved science (as that was what I studied through university) and if I'd miss it in my year off, and I knew that I wanted to do all of this steps from the Pacific Ocean. I enrolled in an art program, got my student visa, packed my belongings in two suitcases, and moved to Los Angeles. I had little money, no job prospects, just this huge idea that somehow, someway, I'd find myself - and I was absolutely convinced it would happen on the shore of the Pacific, perhaps in meditation or in a completely combustible "a-ha" moment.
It didn't.
And it wasn't until a few months of being back in the suburbs of Toronto that I realized why. I went to LA with no idea of what I actually wanted. I came back a bit disheartened, slightly disenchanted, and in complete denial. But how could I know where I was going, if I had no intended destination? If we have no destination, we're bound to end up someplace else, aren't we?
After months of failed job searching, I applied to lululemon and met Diana: the assistant manager who would change my views about the retail industry. Here's a girl with an awesome education, intelligence, creativity, and a whole lot of heart - and she works at lululemon athletica Vaughan Mills. I was intrigued. I soon had my first goal coaching session with Elise; a spunky, health-conscious manager who oozed amazing leadership qualities. I learned about the hedgehog concept, discussed what I was passionate about, and wrote everything down.
Here I am today; I never "found" myself on the shores of the Pacific, but setting goals and writing them down changed the way I see myself and the control I have over my future.
The recipe for success isn't a difficult one: add one part goal-setting (http://goals.lululemon.com), one part genuine willingness to achieve these goals, and eight parts passion for everything you're trying to achieve. It takes the simple belief in yourself to know that you are worthy of your goals, and your goals worthy of you. And though we may not always achieve every goal, working towards something is an achievement in and of itself.
Namaste.
