Relevant

DEFINITION OF RELEVANT

The dictionary defines relevant as:

closely connected or appropriate to what is being done or considered. Or Appropriate to the current time, period, or circumstances; of contemporary interest.

This basically means that if you have a specific aim or something that you’d like to achieve, your actions and goals for forwarding progress should be closely related to that achievement.

For instance, let’s say that you’re working towards a health goal of losing 20 lbs in the next 5 months. All of the milestones that you set should be relevant to your goal. Maybe you say that you want to lose 4 lbs a month each month for the next 5 months. Or, it could be that you meal prep for the days that you go to work. You could even add going to the gym for 45 minutes per session 3 times a week. All of these goals would be related to your overarching goal of losing 20 lbs in the next 5 months.

However, if you’re saying to yourself, I need to get a more fuel-efficient car to get to the gym. Or, I better spend 5 hours curating different music playlists for my workouts. Or more commonly, I better get some new workout clothes so that I look good as I’m posting my progress on Instagram. All of these things may seem relevant but ultimately, having a more fuel-efficient car, a great playlist, or nice-looking outfits for the gym have nothing to do with the actual work of lifting weights, doing cardio, and watching your diet to help you achieve your weight loss goals.

KNOW YOUR OVERARCHING GOAL

It can’t be overstated how important it is to be crystal clear about what you want to achieve. You’ve got to know your ultimate goal so you can have a target to refer to as you’re taking the action steps to move you forward towards your goal.

Let’s say that you’re in New York and you’ve decided to do a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles. Along the way, you plan to visit some of America’s most iconic landmarks. You’ve done your research, packed up your supplies and provisions, rented a car, planned out your itinerary of the locations you’d like to visit along the way and set off.

Starting off in New York, you visit Niagara Falls, and then you’re on your way to Chicago for a Cubs Game and Chicago’s deep dish pizza. After that, it’s onto Badlands National Park in Wyoming, then Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The next destination is Jackson Hole Wyoming for white water rafting after which you’ll be heading to Yosemite National Park. Finally, you’ll head out for the last stretch of your trip to Los Angeles.

If you didn’t have a final destination or a plan or schedule as to how to get there, you’d be driving aimlessly just taking in the sites. You’d run the risk of running out of food, gas, or money. If you didn’t have a final destination and didn’t know where you were going, it would be impossible to know when you’d arrive. You could have been driving around in circles for weeks only to end up 30 miles from where you first started.

Like having a set destination, it’s important to have a goal or a target. In the last example where the person didn’t have a target destination, he was wandering aimlessly for weeks, which could have easily turned into months or years. There was no way to manage resources, time, or himself because he didn’t know what he was managing for. The craziest part about all of this and it’s interesting to note, he was not afraid to take action! There was nothing holding him back! Imagine the incredible things he could have experienced and accomplished if he had a goal to work towards and a solid plan!

KNOW YOUR TARGET REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR STEPS

Going back to the well-planned cross country traveler, once he had a target, he could basically map out all the steps it took to get from step A to step Z. Using maps for locations and calculating travel times, and google for research on what to do at different destinations, the traveler basically worked backward or reverse engineered his trip so that he could have the experience of a lifetime driving cross country across the United States.

He could always refer to his itinerary and plan to make sure that everything was moving in the right direction. Even if he got sidetracked for whatever reason, there was always something to refer to help him decide what was relevant to his trip and what wasn’t.

In the same way, when you have a goal, and a plan to reach that goal, you’ll be able to identify what sort of action and activity is relevant to achieving your goal.

In our cross-country road trip example above, of course, this wasn’t the first time that anyone has attempted this endeavor. After all, someone made the roads to connect all the destinations. There are signs to direct people on which routes to take, gas stations and food stops along the way, and even voice-assisted GPS that tells you when and where to turn. It may be easy to forget, but the modern conveniences we have at our disposal are pretty incredible.

Many of the goals you’d like to accomplish for yourself professionally or personally have been accomplished before and so there already exists a reference or template as to what steps are required and what is relevant to achieving your desired goals.

TIME AND RESOURCES ARE LIMITED

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and that’s a wonderful thing! Much of the information we’re looking for is literally at our fingertips through a search online. Instead of having to spend tremendous amounts of time through trial and error figuring out what the pieces of a puzzle are, we can dedicate our time towards how to put the pieces together in the most efficient way.

Efficiency is a big consideration! It doesn’t matter what situation you’re in, or what you’re after, time and resources are limited. This is especially true when it comes to being relevant with your goals because you have to be realistic as well. Errors and things not working perfectly have to be built into your considerations because even with all the information available about how to proceed, it will be your first time going through this process.

Some of the questions you want to ask yourself are:

Do you know what metrics to keep track of?

Do you have a way to collect the information you need?

Does your timeline keep your goal and actions relevant?

An example of this is training for a marathon. For anyone that’s ever completed a marathon without training for it, you know how excruciating it can be when you haven’t trained, don’t have the right gear, and you don’t know what to expect.

If you’re trying to finish a marathon in a specific time, you want to keep a certain pace. Luckily, all you really need to keep pace is a stop watch or smart watch. What type of training schedule do you have and are you building up your distance? Have you allotted yourself sufficient time to get your body used to running 26.2 miles?

In regards to keeping training relevant, weight lifting, speed training, or vertical jump training would not be relevant to successful marathon training. For the marathon training example, all relevant actions just happen to be actionable since it’s all revolving around getting out and running the miles!

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS CONSISTENTLY

What determines relevance all depends on the nature of the goal you're looking to achieve. However, one constant across any goal is that progress and actions need to be monitored consistently. This way adjustments can be made and actions can be modified to stay relevant and on track.

When information is present, it is often presented as a snapshot, a data capture or a reading of a moment. However, when you start to piece those moments together, a more complete picture begins to emerge. You start to see trends telling a story of what is occurring over time.

By understanding trends, series of events, or patterns of behaviors, you’re able to not only anticipate events with a higher degree of confidence, but you’re also able to take the appropriate and relevant actions to move towards your goals.

Situations are always dynamic. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the scale of fractions of a second like in stock trades or chemical reactions, or decades like climate change, or millions of years like the movement of tectonic plates. Environments are always changing and checking progress consistently will keep your actions and goals relevant!

KNOW YOUR WHY

There’s a story by Heinrich Boll about a fisherman and a businessman.

One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. “You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman. “You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”

The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”

“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer.

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling.

The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.

“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.

The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”

Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?"

Obviously what the fisherman considered important had a different context from what the businessman considered important.

The lesson here is to ask yourself not only what you value but more importantly, why you value what you do. This ultimately determines what is relevant to you.

Suppose you wanted to be a musical recording artist or pop star. You have no clue how to break into the industry and so you fall back on what’s familiar to you, going out clubbing.

You think that to break into the industry, you should party like how the artists party, and hopefully, some famous artist or producer will see potential in you and take you under their wing. This is one approach. Although not impossible, the odds of this happening are very low.

It would be more appropriate and relevant to learn about music, singing, dancing, etc and put together a portfolio of your work and look for an agency to sign and invest in you. Although speaking to multiple people in the industry and having them suggest this same course of action, you don't heed their advice.

This is when you have to seriously ask yourself, “Is becoming a recording artist seriously what I want or am I more interested in the lifestyle that they live?” There is a big difference. Actually becoming a pop star requires a tremendous amount of work with no guarantee of success. Living that pop star lifestyle is easily accessible if you have the resources and stamina to maintain that lifestyle.

Even in an example such as this, circumstances, desires, and goals change. As a result, what you consider relevant will change as well.

CONCLUSION

Today we talked about what relevant means and why having relevant goals is crucial for you to achieve your aims. By knowing what your overarching aims are, you’ll be able to take appropriate and relevant actions to move you forward. Having clarity allows you to reverse engineer your goals to take the right steps. Being aware that time and resources are limited and checking your progress consistently keep you on track towards your achievements.

Finally, having a clear and honest understanding of what you value will help you determine what is most relevant to you. This way, you’ll work towards goals that align with what’s truly important to you!

Thanks for watching today and we’ll see you next time on The Modern Wisdom Guide!