I love this concept gleaned from leadership consultant Bobb Biehl. He shares that there are two kinds of people in the world:
1. Goal Setters 2. Problem Solvers
CC Image courtesy of Robert degennaro on Flickr
What is the difference between setting goals and solving problems?:
1. Goal Setters
Goal setters enjoy setting goals and achieving goals.
I love setting goals. Every year I look forward to praying, thinking and writing down what I want to accomplish for the upcoming year.
Usually I do this in a vision retreat setting. You can read about the value of vision retreats in two articles I wrote: HERE and HERE.
My goals document has grown to about 35 pages long and includes my Life Purpose, Core Values, Life Vision, personal disciplines, records of past achievements, “bucket list” and so on. For me, it’s a “True North” document that keeps me on track with being all God wants me to be. Clearly, I like setting goals!
In fact, you may be thinking I’m a little crazy, especially if you are in the second category of…
2. Problem Solvers
I’m married to and know lots of very successful people who don’t like setting goals. They look at life differently. They are Problem Solvers.
Instead of thinking about what mountain they want to climb, they think of what difficulties need to be overcome.
Both Goal Setters and Problem Solvers work toward success and accomplishment, they just approach it differently.
I encourage you to be all you can be by either:
Figuring out the problems you need to solve now, or
Figuring out what goals you want to accomplish now.
In my next blog I give a DOO IT formula for accomplishment whether you are a Goal Setter or Problem Solver. Click HERE to read that article.
Question (please comment below): Are you a Problem Solver or Goal Setter?