Note: Framework for GHDR 2022 Goals

Tuesday, October 4, 2022.

The past few weeks have been really terrible in terms of big wins. What I wanted was a totally cleaned-up house in three weeks. What I got was a somewhat sparser basement with new piles of stuff spread around the house awaiting further processing. Very aggravating, but there is one important insight to take from this: I am not that experienced in working with physical spaces compared to working with knowledge spaces. In other words, sucking at this is not a surprise because I don't have a practiced process for systematically transforming my cluttered condo into a beautiful home.

I'm taking a break from the house declutter to revisit goal setting again. Here are my notes.

WHAT IS A GOAL?

I defined a GOAL as being purpose-driven, long-term, forward-focused, actionable, and measurable. I am fine at these:

I am bad at these:

Long-term is hard for me to get motivated by, because I live in the now and find future rewards not very compelling (executive dysfunction). Actionable is hard also because starting an action also carries with it uncertain reward and process is an expensive mental hurdle to jump by myself. In general, solo action is difficult in these two area.

ARCHETYPES

This is a list of "archetypes" that I believe I tend towards, confirmed by a friend.

These are the key roles:

• The Resort Manager is the "destination explainer" which one uses to describe what the main offering is. The description includes elements of the following personas as part of the appeal, particularly The Catalyzing Incubator, The Infectious Sunflower, The Adventure Club Host and The Expedition Planner.
• The Engaging Shopkeeper is the "transactional personas" that one directly experiences for themselves when purchasing something. There are multiple transactional personas, but the mass-market one. Other transactional/service personas as The Catalyzing Incubator, The Adventure Club Host, and The Expedition Planner.

Furthermore:

• Skill Classes are "practical impression" that is remembered from the transaction. The key archetypes are The Practical Magician, The Investigative Designer, The Reluctant Assassin and The Inventor/Creator. These all have a number of individual skills, and when practiced well create reputation.
• Personal Style are the "personality impression" that lingers outside of practical matters, an assessment of the vibe of someone. The key archetypes are The Time Traveling Librarian, The Infectious Sunflower, and The Best Girl. Some people will feel drawn to these personalities, creating engagement with other potential members of The Tribe.

PERSONAL VALUES

This is a partial list of what underlies all activities under the Sri umbrella.

COMMUNITY VALUES

I want to be part of a tribe of sharing, caring, supportive people who live these values:

STRATEGIC GOALS

These are goals that I think will benefit me and the tribe of like-minded folks in a sustainable way.

1. Grow a self-sustaining "ecosystem" for the tribe
2. Figure out how to create one job while also supporting myself!
3. Figure out how to show people how to be part of the tribe,and how to contribute to it!
4. Provide ways for people to find their unique offerings and connect them to the ecosystem!
5. Define and publish the governing principles of the ecosystem such that people can understand how it is able to operate as a self-sustaining operation and spread its positive culture.
6. Be the Sri I want to be, finding ways to connect my goals with the elements of the ecosystem.

STRATEGIC HORIZONS

A strategic horizon is a "compass direction" that points toward a particular kind of vision that feels worth pursuing, but lacks the strategic or operational detail needed to form specific goals. However, they are critical for gut checks on whether a particular goal, project, or task is "on-mission" or not.

I'm considering using the archetypes as constellation groups to evaluate whether any task is aligned with anything.

OPERATIONAL GOALS

And from these are the operational goals (things to make and get working)

• Rebuild the Online Store - this is so I can derive additional income
• Rebuild the Publishing Communications to feed into the public square - these are the ideas and sharepieces that I release that helps to describe the ecosystem I'd like to be a part of, and provides ways for people to find the public square.
• Compartmentalize the Specialty Services as their own limited-scope operations - this is things like contract work I do in programming and design, and they are a source of supplemental income. They are not directly plugged-in to the ecosysten, though the things I know how to do can help build it.
• Develop the Knowledge Management System that I'm using, which I am hoping will also support the essential activities of exploring, learning, building, and sharing that are the very bones of the ecosystem. This also is part of the Publishing System, encompassing the website and reindexed content from the old website.

What's Next?

• I think there's enough here to create an interesting tracking system that is a remix of my past productivity forms, so a next step would be to make some exploratory outlines.

• There are some e-commerce things I need to do to, specifically making some pre-packaged goods to list for sale on the Shopify store to give it a trial run. This includes figuring out shipping and handling from my condominium basement and I totally don't want to do it because packaging boxes and looking up shipping costs, reconciling fees received with postage purchased, and sending the right box to the right address is time intensive and booooring. Ugh!

I could write more, but these two are plenty to get the day started.