BLT meeting: 2019 goals and the ‘Why’ chromosome

Yes, it’s that time of year. Putting 2018 firmly behind us and focusing on the new challenges for the year ahead…2019 goal setting!

This was the topic up for discussion at this week’s BLT meeting, and having started off ‘traditionally’ with our SMART goals, we ended up veering off at rather an unusual angle…swapping chromosomes!

3 things we are EXPECTED to say about our 2019 goals:

1. Make them SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
   
2. Don’t put them off until later
3. Don’t stand still – recycle your goals

Don’t get me wrong – this is all good, sound advice, but we already knew most of this already, didn’t we? So, maybe it’s worth having a look below the surface, delving deeper within ourselves…?

Does our sex get in the way of our goals?

A bit of background biology first: in humans, each cell normally contains 23 pairs of chromosomes – 22 of these pairs are identical but one pair differs – that is called the sex chromosome. 

The sex chromosome will be XX for females and XY for males. The gender is determined by the lucky sperm which fertilises the egg (half of which carry an X chromosome, the other half a Y chromosome). 

It’s all about the ‘Y’

Apologies – this is all rather long-winded, but the point is that males and females are biologically very very similar, albeit often poles apart in terms of outlook and mentality!

So, maybe think of your New Year goals as just changing a chromosome than changing your whole life? If you are a female, that means trying to get in touch with your male side.

How to go about doing this? What about creating an alternative persona for yourself? For example, within the BLT group, some females admitted to a reluctance to engage with social media whilst promoting their businesses, citing ‘not wanting to look too pushy’.

Potential benefits for females (from adopting a male persona)

1. Learn to fail objectively, not emotionally
2. Don’t take criticism too personally
3. Don’t over-complicate matters – remain results-focused

Potential benefits for males (from adopting a female persona)

1. Increased emotional empathy
2. Greater integrity – doing the ‘right’ thing to care for your family (i.e. business)
3. More consultative approach – building, rather than ‘forcing’, opinion

Conclusion

If you have a mental block about achieving your 2019 goals, creating an identity you can hide behind could be a way to break this? By all means personify this alternative identity – give it a name and, if that helps, maybe even imagine how your ‘other sex’ alter ego might look?

Putting such mechanisms in place which allow you to sidestep any mental blocks, might suddenly make those 2019 goals become that much more attainable.