Monday Meditation, Backward

I said the other day I’d give a personal example of Backward Design as a goal setting tool. Seemed in keeping with the theme of the day to start the process here (plus, there was a call to continue the Week in Quotes series yesterday).

I put in my goals for this year to create each month a list of goals for the Community School project. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to proceed with this in a way that will lead to something tangible by the end of the year, but this is just so vague and, in more ways than one, a little daunting. I listed several concrete items in the other post that I thought would represent progress toward the end goal but, really, the end goal itself lacks a certain substance. It’s not, in and of itself, representative of anything except creating a list. Why am I creating the list? What am I expecting to have achieved from putting that list together? What will I be able to do? I’ll be honest: I don’t have good answers to those questions. Well, that’s not true. I really have way too many answers, and what needs to happen is that I need to put them into some sort of focus.

That’s the work of the day for me. I’m spending time taking all the things I want for this project and picking out a single one that will epitomize progress toward the realization of this endeavor. I’m going to try to have something to share for tomorrow, but I don’t want to promise anything. I’ll post it as soon as I have it, though.