This is How to Actually Attain Your Goals

How does one get things done? How does one make a dream a reality or carry a plan through to completion? Many of us seem to have unrealized goals or incomplete plans and many of us face tasks that appear overwhelming, even impossible to achieve. This is true not only of individuals, but of companies and even countries. History is filled with failed projects.

In examining the subject of organization, L. Ron Hubbard developed an enormous body of technology to ensure the success of any group. In doing so, he also provided a solution to the most common of failings: the lack of ability to execute plans.

Plans can be carried through to fruition, but a number of vital steps must be taken, one after the other. You’ll learn what these steps are and how to apply them to anything – a personal ambition, a family, a group, a business and more. You’ll learn that your dreams can become real.

Administrative Scale

The achievement of one’s goals, no matter how large or small the endeavor, relies on goals, purposes and activities being aligned and organized.

A goal is not something that one decides upon which then miraculously comes to fruition, just because one decided it would. The attainment of a goal necessitates that certain actions be carried out in the real world which effect some change for the better and a step closer toward its accomplishment.

One can be working toward a goal, but discover that his actions do not yield any forward progress. This occurs not only for an individual in his life, but also for an organization, state or country of any size. This can be a result of the plans, actions and other factors not being aligned to attain the goal.

There are actually a number of subjects that make up an activity. Each of these must operate in a coordinated manner to achieve success in the intended accomplishment of the envisioned goal.

A scale has been developed in Scientology which gives a sequence (and relative seniority) of subjects relating to organization.

Goals
A goal is a known objective toward which actions are directed with the purpose of achieving that end.

Purposes
A purpose is a lesser goal applying to specific activities or subjects. It often expresses future intentions.

Policy
Policy consists of the operational rules or guides for the organization which are not subject to change.

Plans
A plan is a short-range broad intention thought up for the handling of a broad area to remedy it or expand it, or to obstruct or impede an opposition to expansion.

Programs
A program is a series of steps in sequence to carry out a plan.

Projects
A project is a sequence of steps written to carry out one step of a program.

Orders
An order is a verbal or written direction to carry out a program step or apply general policy.

Ideal Scenes
An ideal scene expresses what a scene or area ought to be. If one has not envisioned an ideal scene with which to compare the existing scene, he will not be able to recognize departures from it.

Statistics
A statistic is a number or amount compared to an earlier number or amount of the same thing. Statistics refer to the quantity of work done or the value of it.

Valuable Final Products
A valuable final product is a product that can be exchanged for the services or goods of the society.

This scale is worked up and worked down UNTIL IT IS (EACH ITEM) IN FULL AGREEMENT WITH THE REMAINING ITEMS.

In short, for success, all these items in the scale must agree with all other items in the scale on the same subject.

Let us take “golf balls” as a subject for the scale. Then all these scale items must be in agreement with one another on the subject of golf balls. It is an interesting exercise.

The scale also applies in a destructive subject. Like “cockroaches.”

When an item in the scale is not aligned with the other items, the project will be hindered, if not fail.

The skill with which all these items in any activity are aligned and gotten into action is called MANAGEMENT.

Group members only become upset when one or more of these points are not aligned to the rest and at least some group agreement.

Groups appear slow, inefficient, unhappy, inactive or quarrelsome only when these items are not aligned, made known and coordinated.

Any activity can be improved by debugging or aligning this scale in relation to the group activity.

As lack of agreement breeds lessened communication and lessened affinity, it follows that unreal items on the scale (not aligned) produce upsets and disaffection.

It then follows that when these scale items are well aligned with each other and the group, there will be high agreement, high communication and high affinity in the group.

Group mores aligned so and followed by the group gives one an ethical group and also establishes what will then be considered as harmful, contrasurvival acts in the group by group members.

This scale and its parts and ability to line them up are one of the most valuable tools of organization.

Making Planning an Actuality

For an individual, group or organization to achieve an intended goal requires knowledge of certain principles on the subject of organization.

When we look at organization in its most simple form, when we seek certain key actions or circumstances that make organization work, when we need a very simple, very vital rundown to teach people that will produce results, we find only a few points we need to stress.

The purpose of organization is TO MAKE PLANNING BECOME ACTUALITY.

An actuality is a state or thing that exists in reality.

Organization is not just a fancy, complex system, done for its own sake. That is bureaucracy at its worst. Graphs for the sake of graphs, rules for the sake of rules, only add up to failures.

The only virtue (not always a bad one) of a complex, unwieldy, meaningless bureaucratic structure is that it provides jobs for the friends of those in control. If it does not also bring about burdensome taxation and threatened bankruptcy by reason of the expense of maintaining it, and if it does not saddle a people or production employees with militant (aggressive) inspections and needless control, organization for the sake of providing employment is not evil but beyond providing employment is useless, and only when given too much authority is it destructive.

The kings of France and other lands used to invent titles and duties to give activity to the hordes of noble hangers-on to keep them at court, under surveillance, and out of mischief out in the provinces where they might stir up their own people. “Keeper of the Footstools,” “Holder of the Royal Nightgown” and other such titles were fought for, bought, sold and held with ferocity.

Status-seeking, the effort to become more important and have a personal reason for being and for being respected, gets in the road of honest efforts to effectively organize in order to get something done, in order to make something economically sound.

Organization for its own sake, in actual practice, usually erects a monster that becomes so hard to live with that it becomes overthrown. Production losses, high taxes, irritating or fearsome interference with the people or actual producers invites and accomplishes bankruptcy or revolt, usually both, even in commercial companies.

Therefore to be meaningful, useful and lasting, an organization (corporation, company, business, group, etc.) has to fit into the definition above:

TO MAKE PLANNING BECOME ACTUALITY

In companies and countries there is no real lack of dreaming. All but the most depraved (morally bad or corrupt) heads of companies or states wish to see specific or general improvement. This is also true of their executives and, as it forms the basis of nearly all revolts, it is certainly true of workers. From top to bottom, then, there is, in the large majority, a desire for improvement.

More food, more profit, more pay, more facilities and, in general, more and better of whatever they believe is good or beneficial. This also includes less of what they generally consider to be bad.

Programs which obtain general support consist of more of what is beneficial and less of what is detrimental. “More food, less disease,” “more beautiful buildings, less hovels,” “more leisure, less work,” “more activity, less unemployment,” are typical of valuable and acceptable programs.

But only to have a program is to have only a dream. In companies, in political parties, useful programs are very numerous. They suffer only from a lack of execution.

All sorts of variations of program failure occur. The program is too big. It is not generally considered desirable. It is not needed at all. It would benefit only a few. Such are surface reasons. The basic reason is lack of organization know-how.

Any program, too ambitious, partially acceptable, needed or not needed, could be put into effect if properly organized.

The five-year plans of some nations which were in vogue were almost all very valuable and almost all fell short of their objectives. The reason was not that they were unreal, too ambitious or generally unacceptable. The reason for any such failure was and is lack of organization.

It is not man’s dreams that fail him. It is the lack of know-how required to bring those dreams into actuality.

Good administration has two distinct targets:

1. To perpetuate (prolong the existence of) an existing company, culture or society,

2. To make planning become actuality.

Given a base on which to operate – which is to say land, people, equipment and a culture – one needs a good administrative pattern of some sort just to maintain it.

Thus (1) and (2) above become (2) only. The plan is “to continue the existing entity.” No company or country continues unless one continues to put it there. Thus an administrative system of some sort, no matter how crude, is necessary to perpetuate any group or any subdivision of a group. Even a king or headman or manager who has no other supporting system to whom one can bring disputes about land or water or pay is an administrative system. The foreman of a labor gang that only loads trucks has an astonishingly complex administrative system at work.

Companies and countries do not work just because they are there or because they are traditional. They are continuously put there by one or another form of administration.

When a whole system of administration moves out or gets lost or forgotten, collapse occurs unless a new or substitute system is at once moved into place.

Changing the head of a department, much less a general manager and much, much less a ruler, can destroy a portion or the whole since the old system, unknown, disregarded or forgotten, may cease and no new system which is understood is put in its place. Frequent transfers within a company or country can keep the entire group small, disordered and confused, since such transfers destroy what little administration there might have been.

Thus, if administrative shifts or errors or lack can collapse any type of group, it is vital to know the basic subject of organization.

Even if the group is at effect – which is to say originates nothing but only defends in the face of threatened disaster – it still must plan. And if it plans, somehow it must get the plan executed or done. Even a simple situation of an attacked fortress has to be defended by planning and doing the plan, no matter how crude. The order “Repel the invader who is storming the south wall” is the result of observation and planning no matter how brief or unthorough. Getting the south wall defended occurs by some system of administration even if it only consists of sergeants hearing the order and pushing their men to the south wall.

A company with heavy debts has to plan even if it is just to stall off creditors. And some administrative system has to exist even to do only that.

The terrible dismay of a young leader who plans a great and powerful new era only to find himself dealing with old and weak faults is attributable not to his “foolish ambition” or “lack of reality” but to his lack of organizational know-how.

Even elected presidents or prime ministers of democracies are victims of such terrible dismay. They do not, as is routinely asserted, “go back on their campaign promises” or “betray the people.” They, as well as their members of parliament, simply lack the rudiments (fundamentals) of organizational know-how. They cannot put their campaign promises into effect, not because they are too high-flown (sounding grand or important) but because they are politicians, not administrators.

To some men it seems enough to dream a wonderful dream. Just because they dreamed it they feel it should now take place. They become very provoked when it does not occur.

Whole nations, to say nothing of commercial firms or societies or groups, have spent decades in floundering turmoil because the basic dreams and plans were never brought to fruition (successful completion).

Whether one is planning for the affluence of the Appalachian Mountains or a new loading shed closer to the highway, the gap between the plan and the actuality will be found to be lack of administrative know-how.

Technical ignorance, finance, even lack of authority and unreal planning itself are none of them true barriers between planning and actuality.

Plans and Programs

There is, however, much to know of the techniques employed to draw up planning which will bring one’s dreams to realization. An initial step would be to comprehend the basic terms relating to the subject.

A plan is a description of the short-range broad intentions as to what one sees is required to handle a specific area. A plan would be expected to remedy nonoptimum circumstances in an area or expand it or to obstruct or impede an opposition to expansion.

For a plan to be carried out requires it be broken down into the specific actions necessary to accomplish what the plan intends to do. This is done by use of a program.

A program is a series of steps in sequence to carry out a plan. To write a program requires that a plan exist beforehand, even if only in the mind of the person writing the program. A step of a program is called a target.

A program is composed of targets. A target is an action which should be undertaken in order to achieve a desired objective.

There are several values of targets. Not all targets are the same value or importance. Each of these is described below.

Major Target

A major target is the desirable overall ambition being undertaken. This is highly generalized, such as “to become a trained Scientology practitioner.”

Other examples in different fields would be:

“To get all machinery and equipment in the company operational.”

“To acquire, set up, make ready and use a suitable property and facilities at reasonable low cost.”

“To get books being distributed to mail order customers and any stores or distributors.”

Jones looking at his empty garage

Jones thinking of how garage should look
A major target is the overall objective

Primary Targets

A primary target is one which deals with the organizational, personnel and communication-type steps that have to be kept in. These are a group of “understood” targets which, if overlooked, bring about inaction.

The first of these is: SOMEBODY THERE

Then: WORTHWHILE PURPOSE

Then: SOMEBODY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE AREA OR ACTION

Then: FORM OF ORGANIZATION PLANNED WELL

Then: FORM OF ORGANIZATION HELD OR REESTABLISHED

Then: ORGANIZATION OPERATING

If we have the above “understood” targets, we can go on; but if these drop out or are not substituted for, then no matter what targets are set thereafter they will go rickety or fail entirely.

In the above there may be a continual necessity to reassert one or more of the “understood” targets WHILE trying to get further targets going.

Some examples of primary targets would be:

“Accept the job to which one is being assigned.”

“Read and understand the program which you will be doing.”

Hiring Chief Mechanic
Somebody there is an example of a primary target.

Vital Targets

A vital target is something that must be done to operate at all.

This requires an inspection of both the area one is operating into and the factors or materiel or organization with which we are operating.

One then finds those points (sometimes while operating) which stop or threaten future successes. And sets the overcoming of the vital ones as targets.

Some examples of these would be:

“Look into the circumstances one is inspecting with your own eyes; don’t accept another’s report.”

“Accept no orders from anyone other than your direct senior.”

“Do not let the supply of books falter in the country while the campaign is ongoing.”

“Maintain a high level of ethical behavior and set an excellent example in doing so.”

Giving Chief Mechanic vital target
A vital target must be in to operate successfully.

Conditional Targets

A conditional target is one which is done to find out data, or if a project can be done, where it can be done, etc.

You’ve seen chaps work all their lives to “get rich” or some such thing in order to “tour the world” and never make it. Some other fellow sets “tour the world” and goes directly at it and does it. So there is a type of target known as a conditional target: If I could just ________ then we could ________ and so accomplish ________. This is all right of course until it gets unreal.

There is a whole class of conditional targets that have no IF in them. These are legitimate targets. They have lots of WILL in them, “We will ________ and then _________.”

Sometimes sudden “breaks” show up and one must quickly take advantage of them. This is only “good luck.” One uses it and replans quickly when it happens. One is on shaky ground to count on “good luck” as a solution.

A valid conditional target would be:

“We will go there and see if the area is useful.”

Another example of a conditional target is:

“If there is a backlog of filing, then organize a short time period each day where the company’s employees assist in filing the particles in the correct files.”

All conditional targets are basically actions of gathering data first, and if it is okay, then go into action.

Jones thinking about getting busy
All conditional targets are basically actions of gathering
data first, and if it is okay, then go into action..

Operating Targets

An operating target is one which would set the direction of advance and qualify it. It normally includes a scheduled time by which it has to be complete so as to fit into other targets.

Sometimes the time is set as “BEFORE.” And there may be no time for the event that it must be done “before.” Thus it goes into a rush basis “just in case.”

Examples of operating targets would be:

“Advertise books in local magazines which are subscribed to by the type of audience who would be interested in these books.”

“Hire local labor to make adobe bricks for the walls.”

“Establish how the company newsletter can be most inexpensively mailed to the branch offices.”

“Clean up the President’s suite.”

“Send a courier with the return mail direct to the home office.”

Jobs to be done with check marks by some
An operating target would set the direction of advance and qualify it.

Working on cars

Production Targets

Setting quotas, usually against time, are production targets.

Examples of production targets would be:

“Next year’s tuition set aside by June.”

“Fifty thousand books bound by next month.”

As statistics most easily reflect production, an organization or activity can be so PRODUCTION TARGET conscious that it fails to set conditional, operating or primary targets. When this happens, then production is liable to collapse for lack of planning stated in other types of targets.

Production as the only target type can become so engulfing that conditional targets even when set are utterly neglected. Then operating and primary targets get very unreal and statistics go DOWN.

YOU HAVE TO INSPECT AND SURVEY AND GATHER DATA AND SET OPERATING AND PRIMARY TARGETS BEFORE YOU CAN SET PRODUCTION TARGETS.

A normal reason for down statistics on production is the vanishment of primary targets. These go out and nobody notices that this affects production badly. Production depends on other prior targets being kept in.

Showing raised production
Setting quotas, usually against time, are production targets.

The following is a concise summary of the different types of targets which make up a program.

Types of Targets

Major Targets
The broad general ambition, possibly covering a long, only approximated period of time. Such as “To attain greater security” or “To get the organization up to fifty employees.”

Primary Targets
The organizational, personnel, communication-type targets. These have to be kept in. These are the type of targets which deal with the terminals, communication routes, materiel and organizing boards. Example: “To put someone in charge of organizing it and have him set remaining primary targets.” Or “To reestablish the original communication system which has dropped out.”

Vital Targets
Those which must be done to operate at all, based on an inspection of the area in which one is operating.

Conditional Targets
Those which set up EITHER/OR, to find out data or if a project can be done or where or to whom.

Operating Targets
Those which lay out directions and actions or a schedule of events or timetable.

Production Targets
Those which set quantities like statistics.

To learn more, I suggest getting and reading the book The Problems of Work