PLANNING AND UNINTENTIONAL CONSEQUENCES

When it comes to setting goals, planning, estimating time frames, costs, etc., we often forget to take into consideration unintended consequences. And why do we forget to take these into consideration? Mostly because they are not obvious. They are not a part of the information that’s available to us. Additionally, they are estimates about what could go wrong which typically we do not even think about when we are putting together plans to achieve something. Our focus is on what to do, not on what to avoid. It is not on what could go wrong, what we are not thinking about. We are focused on strategy, resources, personnel, implementation, etc.

Additionally, another problem with unintended consequences is that our focus is on intentional consequences — the effects that we imagine that will resent when we achieve our goals. That is, after all, why we set goals in the first place— we seek to do what’s required in order to get the desired effects (consequences) which will result from reaching our outcomes— effects experiences like happiness, relaxation, confidence, etc.

An old statement that’s often quoted asserts that “The pathway to hell is paved with good intentions.” We intend well. We have the highest aspirations and the most noble intentions. Yet sometimes in spite of the good intentions, bad things happen. That’s the unintended consequences.

Unintended consequences takes several forms. One form arises from having every intention of eating right and exercising regularly, but then “life” happens. Excuses are used, plans are put off, and we find ourselves suffering from our poor eating habits and lack of exercising habit. We suffer obesity, diabetes, etc. and wonder why these consequences since we had the best of intentions. That’s one form of unintended consequences.

Here’s another. We set out to create wealth and to establish a stream for passive income for later in life. In the process, we work 80 hours a week so that our family will be provided for and safe. What we didn’t expect was that we would lose the family. We did not expect that a wife (or a husband) and children would not feel loved or that perhaps would leave. Or if not physically, they would leave emotionally and relationally. Unintended consequences in spite of good intentions.

An unintended consequence, that I suffer today, arose from putting my focus on spreading NLP and Neuro-Semantics around the world. As that occurred and as it succeeded, I eventually was away 80 percent of the time for many, many years. Then as I started cutting that back to 70 percent, and 60 percent, I discovered that nearly all of my friends and acquaintances which I had

cultivated for 12 years before closing shop on my therapy practice and going on the road – they had died, moved, or somehow got lost in the shuffle. Consequently, today I am very much a stranger in my own city— a place where I have lived and paid taxes (mostly paid taxes) for 36 years. I didn’t anticipate that. Today about the only people I know in Grand Junction are business associates— people I hire to do various things.

Unintended consequences represent a hidden but new powerful aspect in goal setting. Typically you have to specifically ask about them and search for them because they are usually not readily available for your reflection. It’s what you need to do to avoid missing the unintended consequences. It’s what you need to do to avoid getting blindsighted by consequences that show up in surprising ways and in the most inopportune times. What unintended consequences should you check out today? Of the goals you’ve set, what are all of the possible results that could occur?