Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. And when you get it, you just might not even recognize it.

I have been writing about goal-setting all this week. Today I want to focus on our lack of awareness of all the wonderful answers we get to our goal-setting behaviors.

Recognition of a goal achieved is surprisingly low among us. I have a personal example to share with you about this. When I was choosing my initial career path I chose medicine. One of the reasons I did this was because I had seen the movie “The Paper Chase” and was hugely inspired by the immense academic challenge of law school and getting a doctorate degree. Since science was more to my liking, I felt that medical school would be a better fit. I set out to take on the greatest academic challenge of my life. When I arrived, I found the teaching to be unexpectedly uninspiring and independent. I was seriously disappointed with what I interpreted as lousy teaching, and I did not score well the first two years.

It was not until ten years later, when I was sharing my disappointment about this with the greatest teacher I ever had, my high school history teacher and tennis coach, Groomer B. “Sam” Davis.  Mr. Davis, from his wise perspective as an observer simply stated, “It sounds like you got exactly what you asked for.”  Wow, I had never seen it that way before, Ten years I was telling the same story of disappointment, and never even realized I had been gifted with what I had asked for. I had my mind set on the academic challenge being in one specific form. It was a true epiphany for me.

This is more common than you might think. Many of us simply do not notice when the answer to our asking comes, or when our goal is achieved. How could we miss it? Well, sometimes our goal is specified to be very distinct in our minds, and we are not open to the desired result coming in a different form. Let me give you a more common example.

Let’s say your goal is to make more money. You state your goal, and describe in detail how you want to be recognized by your boss at work, receive a promotion, and gain an increase in income related to your promotion. But then, you surprisingly get offered a wonderful job at a different company with a higher salary. You may feel frustration that a great offer is coming to you, but yet, your own boss does not appreciate you and give you the promotion. You then go back to work even more disappointed and unhappy.

This is an example of you getting exactly what you are asking for, more income, but not recognizing it because your focus in on your current boss and the specific job you currently have.

Open your perspective to recognizing any answer that is brought to you. Perhaps you can talk these things through with a trusted friend or spouse, and they as an observer may be able to see what you are missing.

It is really a fun adventure, when you start to recognize all the goals and desires that actually are manifesting around you. It happens more often than any of us realize.