Using Conative Intelligence for Goal Setting
Posted on March 30, 2021 by Terry Lipovski, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Conation is a little known word that should be front of mind for every leader. Understanding it will change and improve the way you set goals forever.
When envisioning and setting goals, it stands to reason that we will achieve a better result if we first take the time to invest in deep, clear thinking about what it is that we truly want and why we want it. Failing to think deeply and clearly about our goals can result in aiming in a mediocre direction, climbing the wrong metaphorical mountain or selling ourselves short of our greater potential. When envisioning goals, it is enormously helpful to employ “conation”.
Conation is the part of mental activity related striving, including desire and volition, a choice or decision made through will. When used wisely, we call this “Conative Intelligence”. It is the ability to discern which desires and intentions truly lead to your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others, and then to then adopt them and act on them while deliberately watching for and disregarding intentions and temptations that undermine sustainable wellbeing.
When asked about the best method to to set goals, Billionaire Investor Warren Buffet replied “Write down the top 25 things that you most want to achieve in your life. Then circle the top 5 and move the other 20 to a new list with the title ‘Things To Avoid At All Cost’”. His point was that we only have a limited amount of time, energy and resources so it is important for us to get goal-setting right.
Conative Intelligence is the practice of using rational thinking and reasoning to determine what to embrace and to prioritize. It is the process of using deep thought and careful consideration when setting wise intentions as one establishes their goals. Considerations may include sustainability, prosperity, health benefits, sustainability, authenticity and well being.
Whether you are unemployed or a CEO, we all want to minimize pain and maximize happiness. In fact, almost everyone’s personal, professional and organizational goals are ultimately tied to happiness. It stands to reason that we should think deeply about our own happiness when we are setting or revisiting our goals. However, there are different types of happiness. For example, there is instant gratification that can come in brief spikes of happiness, like biting into a Boston Creme donut. Then there is material happiness, which is often referred to as “hedonistic” pursuits like money, fame, power, cars and homes. However, research consistently tells us that, after we meet our basic needs (food, shelter and safety), material things are not correlated with lasting happiness. They create transient happiness at best. In fact there is an inverse correlation in that eventually your car ages or your house needs repair. Like instant gratification, material happiness soon fades away.
Lasting happiness, being a more worthy objective, is often described as “eudaemonia”. It is defined as human flourishing or prosperity. Before Abraham Maslow died, he revised the “Hierarchy of Needs” that had led to his prominence as a Psychologist. His revision was based on his belief that a person could not maximize their full potential unless they transcended the best they themselves could be, by also helping other people to become the best that they could be as well. This reflected the fact that humans are social beings who flourish with meaningful interactions. From this perspective, a person cannot be truly prosperous and achieve lasting happiness until they use their strengths to elevate others.
When setting goals, we too should consider the fact that we are social beings. Much of our human experience is impacted by our interactions with others, and likewise, much of the experience of other people is impacted by us. It has been said that we are the sum of the people that we spend the most time with. We are interrelated; we are “Interbeings". So before rushing too quickly in considering your intentions and setting your goals, consider if and how they will benefit you, and/or if and how they will benefit others.
From another angle, consider whether your goals are significant enough to sustain your motivation and efforts. Are your goals aimed at relatively small, safe yardage hand-offs or are they aimed at long-bomb, “Hail Mary” passes to the end-zone? Are you selling yourself short of your own potential? Are you unrealistically ambitious? Somewhere in between these two extremes is a zone that will stretch you outside of your comfort zone, forcing you to drop previous habits and build new skills while forging alliances and partnerships with other like-minded people who believe in a future state that is bigger than the sum of it’s parts.
From a final angle, and also well worth considering, make sure that ethics are not forgotten. For starters, the Physician’s Credo, “above all, do no harm" should be the bare minimum that we should aim for – to do no harm to others or ourselves. But further than doing no harm, should we not aim for “benevolence”: to help others and the world through kindness? Are there not worthwhile issues worth addressing for the sake of ourselves and others? Can we make a positive contribution in our own unique, authentic way?
We challenge leaders start by asking the following four questions to create Conatively Intelligent Goals:
1. What goal do you believe you will be happiest achieving? 2. What do you most need from yourself in order to achieve this goal? 3. What do you most need from others? 4. Who will you share your intentions with?