The Joke and Quantum Mechanics in Everyday Life
There is a joke in The Big Bang Theory about a physicist who goes into a bar, finds an empty stool, and starts calculating. When asked what he is doing, he replies, “I’m figuring out the odds of a beautiful girl appearing on that stool spontaneously. Statistically, it’s not zero!”
There was a Quantum Physicist in my Officer Candidate School company. Always inquisitive, I tried to engage him in a quantum mechanics discussion. His explanation of quantum mechanics was that there was a mathematical probability that when I pound my fist on a table, my fist will pass through the table.
The Odds of Success: Overcoming Perceived Impossibilities
I cannot imagine what that equation would look like. You must calculate the probability for each atomic particle in your fist and the table passing each other without touching. When you combine all those probabilities, you multiply them, not add them. I am trying to say that the odds of your fist passing through the table are 1 out of a very large number.
However, statistically, it’s not zero.
Is that how you feel when you think about your personal growth? When things get difficult, outside your comfort zone, do you question the possibility of achieving your lofty goals?
The Importance of Goal-Setting Frameworks
I was talking to a potential client about goal setting. She had never considered setting goals within a framework and found that idea intriguing. Although I have been reading and writing about Goal Setting for a long time, I don’t often think about Goal Setting as a framework or how the term framework slipped into my lexicon regarding Goal Setting.
However, investing time in discussing frameworks and how they work will pay dividends.
Purpose and Benefits of Frameworks
Provides Focus and Direction
Question: Does the framework clarify what needs to be achieved?
Focus: A framework helps identify priorities and organize actions to align with goals.
Increases Efficiency
Question: Does the framework streamline processes?
Focus: A framework ensures resources, time, and energy are used effectively to achieve results.
Supports Decision-Making
Question: Does the framework guide choices in complex situations?
Focus: A framework simplifies decision-making by providing criteria for evaluating options.
Enhances Communication
Question: Does the framework create a shared understanding among stakeholders?
Focus: A framework offers a clear structure and common language to align efforts and expectations.
Encourages Consistency
Question: Does the framework ensure repeatable and reliable processes?
Focus: A Framework establishes a stable foundation for sustained progress.
A framework is a structured approach or guidelines for solving problems, making decisions, or executing tasks. What does it look like when we apply Goal Setting with this framework definition?
Goal Setting Guidelines
Define the Problem
Question: What problem am I trying to solve?
Focus: How do I become the person I wish to be?
Make Key Decisions
Question: What decisions do I need to make?
Focus: What goals or habits must I curate to evolve into the person I wish to be?
Identify Necessary Actions
Question: What tasks do I need to perform?
Focus: What specific next steps must I take to establish the goals and habits that shape the person I aspire to become?
A good, strong framework provides a systematic way to approach complex issues, ensuring consistency and clarity.
We have defined a goal-setting framework!
The PaulP Coaching Goal Setting Framework combines my Service to your Future Self and the Full Focus Double Win philosophies.
Service to your Future Self:
Service to your Future Self asks two questions.
1) Image where you were ten years ago. Did your Past Self envision the journey that created your Present Self?
2) What could you accomplish if your Present Self partook in crafting the journey toward becoming your Future Self?
You cannot entirely create your Future Self—too many variables exist. Unlike the odds of your hand passing through a table, which are statistically not zero, the odds of entirely creating your Future Self is zero. (Thanks to quantum phenomena like entanglement, the possibility of time travel, however small, isn’t entirely ruled out).
However, the odds of accurately forecasting the future are not zero. Or, in the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “Your task is not to foresee the future but to enable it.”
Anyone can become an overnight sensation by showing up daily with intention and purpose.
Service to your Future Self is about evolution and not revolution—small, consistent investments in your Future Self over time compound into significant personal growth.
That is how Service to your Future Self fits into The PaulP Coaching Goal Setting Framework.
The Double Win:
Maybe it is a Boomer thing, but work/life balance does not have to be a zero-sum game. The Full Focus Double Win: Win at Work and Succeed in Life guides you away from needing to choose between work and life. In the words of the Cheshire Cat and George Harrison, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
When you define what the Double Win is to you, you can start setting boundaries, learn to say no, and work on the priorities aligned with your purpose and goals.
When practiced, the Double Win will take you on a journey of harmony, well-being, and personal growth. You will see results from day one when you start implementing the Double Win; however, the Double Win is all about your journey and requires you to be present and execute constantly.
That is how the Full Focus Double Win fits into the PaulP Coaching Goal Setting Framework.
Saying you have a framework doesn’t mean you have one that works. It takes clarity, scalability, actionability, focus, and flexibility. I have applied these characteristics to the PaulP Coaching Goal Setting Framework, which incorporates the Service to your Future Self and Double-Win philosophies.
PaulP Coaching Goal Setting Framework
Clarity
Question: Does the framework simplify the Service to your Future Self and the Double Win philosophies?
Focus: Using the Fill Focus tools LifeFocus, SMARTER Goals, and the Full Focus Planner, you can create a you-concentric plan to achieve your highest aspirations.
Scalability
Question: Can the framework adapt to both present and future needs?
Focus: By breaking your SMARTER Goals into small, manageable daily tasks, you can focus on the priorities that allow you to achieve the Double Win today while strengthening the foundation for the Future Self you aspire to become.
Actionability
Question: Does the framework provide practical steps to Serve your Future Self and achieve the Double Win?
Focus: First, you create a Life Plan using the Full Focus LifeFocus. Using your Core Values and the Milestones generated using LifeFocus, you construct SMARTER Goals to build the habits that support balance, growth, and fulfillment in both professional and personal domains. Using the eleven tools in the Full Focus, you craft a life that promotes Service to your Future Self and attains the Double Wins.
Focus
Question: Does the framework prioritize goals that align with the Service to your Future Self and Double Win philosophies?
Focus: The framework is about accountability. The Full Focus Planner is a personal accountability tool that, when used daily, keeps you focused on what is important. PaulP Coaching offers programs that work directly with you to keep you on track and focused.
Flexibility
Question: Can the framework adjust to evolving priorities and aspirations?
Focus: You should update your Life Plan annually and adjust your goals as you grow and the world changes. Baked into the Full Focus Planner are Quarterly and Weekly Previews, where you do after-action reports, identify what is working and not working, and update your short-term and long-term goals to ensure they align with your ultimate purpose and contribute to long-term success.
The thing about Quantum Mechanics is that it works on a sub-atomic level. I understand that when you pound your fist on the table at a sub-atomic level, it does pass through it. It all becomes ridiculous when you apply it to the real world (passing your fist through the tabletop).
When you visualize the Future Self you want to create and the habits and goals required to get there, the odds seem insurmountable, statistically, not zero. However, if you align your vision and goals with your core values, break them into “sub-atomic” tasks, and show up daily with intent, you can improve your odds from insurmountable to done one layer at a time while achieving the Double Win and enabling the growth to become the Future Self of your aspirations.
The PaulP Coaching Goal-Setting Framework offers many programs to help you navigate from the seemingly impossible to get things achieved.
The Four-Week Life Plan workshop trains you on the Full Focus LifeFocus. LifeFocus is a gamified process where you will answer the questions:
- Who am I (personal values)
- Why am I here (personal mission)
- Where am I now (your current reality)
- Where am I going (chart your future course)
The four-week SMARTER Goals workshop includes the Freedom Compass. The Freedom Compass will help you identify and focus on the work that excites you. It enables you to work on your priorities and eliminates the distractions of outside urgent demands. The SMARTER Goals framework helps create clear, motivating goals that build the foundation to support your Future Self.
The four-week Full Focus Planner workshop teaches you how to break your SMARTER into quarterly, weekly, and daily tasks, ensuring you work on your highest-priority tasks. In the workshop, you are introduced to daily routines, the Ideal Week, and the Weekly Preview, tools designed to keep you focused on the things that are important to you.
My framework includes programs that include weekly half-hour accountability calls during and after the completion of your workshop.