Happy new year to everyone!
Sorry about the longer pause I had some difficulties around…
GOALS
By the start of a new year many people set their “goals” either for the near future or longer term. Also, we set goals for ourselves in different levels.
Can you remember when you were a child, and thinking about what you wanted to be when you grow up? What occupation attracted you?
Whatever you answer, the appeal of a particular type of adult work is, for many of us, our first hint of the power of goals. Perhaps it is this vision of future outcomes that filled your daydreams, kept you awake during all-nighters in college, or helped you persevere when there were troubles. Goals – whether they are occupational, material, relational, or personal – are the natural motivators of life. Further, many positive psychology researchers have found a direct link between goals pursuit and happiness.
It has been always much emphasis placed on goals by conductors. Most of us have at least an intuitive grasp of their importance: Goals are vital to people because they help them organize their lives to meet crucial existential, social, personal and psychological needs. What’s more, goals are very important to the conductive endeavour because they provide a direction for our work and a baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of our service. Personal goals, those wished or attractive future outcomes we all strive for, have long been the Holy Grail of Conductive Education. Chances are, our clients love working on and toward goals and have an understanding of their motivational power. Likewise, “seasoned conductors”, “family conductors” tend to focus heavily on goals, establishing aims for individual tasks, helping clients to clearly articulate goals, and conducting visioning exercises in which clients set long-term goals. The profession of Conductive Education has, to a large degree, been built around goal setting, and for a good reason. Goals are both functional and important. They give us direction, they motivate us, and they structure our time, actions, and decisions. Working toward goals gives us a sense of accomplishment. Personal and social aspirations are the yardsticks by which each of us can chart a course and measure success.
Goal orientation is the way in which individuals think and talk about their goals. The goal orientation that has received the most research support for being important to happiness is the degree to which people strive for positive goals or strive to avoid negative goals. This dichotomy is commonly referred to as “approach” and “avoidance”. Approach goals are the positive outcomes that clients strive for such as “spend more time with the kids”. Avoidant goals, by contrast, are those negative outcomes that individuals work to avoid or prevent like “avoid gaining weight this winter”. There is a preponderance of research evidence linking avoidant goals to increased distress and anxiety, decreased levels of happiness, lower level of social satisfaction, and poorer perceptions of health.
We all have heard about the glass which is half empty or half full judged by the negative or the positive thinkers. Here is an explanation through parents whom watching their child play in the yard. The approach-oriented parent allows his child to climb a tree because he values exploration, balance, physical strength, or excitement. The avoidant parent, by contrast, tells his child not to climb the tree because there is a legitimate risk of the child getting hurt, and the parent values health and safety. Both parents have a valid set of values, and both have a fine argument backing their respective decisions.
The avoidant orientation is a slightly more negative way to look at the world. As conductors we (should) tuned to listen approach- and avoidance related language of our colleagues and clients, too and make the “magic transformation” (pull the angel out from the people) by reframe negative and work towards success. Conductive Education, as a whole, is based on to avoid of avoidance and “health and safety” employs a higher standard of understanding by CE which allows the child to climb the tree.
