The Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is a multinational, multi-sport event which features competitions involving thousands of elite athletes from members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Organized every four years, they are the third-largest multi-sport event in the world, after the Summer Olympic Games and the Asian Games.

As well as many Olympic sports, the Games also include some sports that are played mainly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls, rugby sevens and netball. The Games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which also controls the sporting program and selects the host cities. The host city is selected from across the Commonwealth, with eighteen cities in seven countries having hosted it.

The event was first held in 1930 under the title of the British Empire Games. The event was renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, and gained its current title in 1978. Only six teams have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Australia has been the highest scoring team for ten games, England for seven and Canada for one.

There are currently 54 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and 71 teams participate in the Games. The four Home Nations of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – send separate teams to the Commonwealth Games, and individual teams are also sent from the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man (unlike at the Olympic Games, where the combined "Great Britain" team represents all four home nations and the Crown dependencies). Many of the British overseas territories also send their own teams. The Australian external territory of Norfolk Island also sends its own team, as do the Cook Islands and Niue, two states in free association with New Zealand. It has been reported that Tokelau, another dependency of New Zealand will be sending a team to the 2010 Games in Delhi, India.

Define Your Goals Effectively

Goals are precise and measurable objectives with exact time frames and targets. Goals are short-term steps toward our long-term vision. Goals are specific points along our journey to higher performance. They could be organization or team improvement objectives such as targets for cycle time, customer satisfaction, error or defect rates, new products or services, costs, or revenues. Personal goals could include targets such as income level or financial position, new home, car or other item, an academic or technical qualification, business we want to start, or position we want to reach.

Clear and powerful goals set priorities. They narrow the wide field of options and choices to those few activities that leverage our limited time and attention. They keep us focused on finding the shortest, most direct route to our destination. That means goals point out where not to go and what not to do as much as where we should go and what we should do. So clear goals lead to faster, clearer decisions, which move us more quickly toward our dreams.

Long-term goal setting has always been vaguely unsatisfying for me. I lean more naturally toward visioning. Part of the reason I am uncomfortable with long-term goal setting is because goals are shallow. Goals define what you want to have, not what you want to become. They are a means, not an end.

Another reason goal setting has been less satisfying is because I've never been very good at it. Most of the time frames on my projections, forecasts, and predictions are wrong. I suppose I should ask for a refund on my cloudy crystal ball. But through persistence and staying true to my course, I've eventually reached and then reset many of my visions. I've generally got to where I wanted to go and became the person I wanted to become. But it was always through a different route than I first expected to take. I guess that's called learning.

So there's the paradox of goals. I believe in personal, team, and organization goal setting. I continue to set goals. And I continue to help leaders set goals and objectives for themselves, their teams, and their organization. Goals are targets that help us immensely in moving from a general vision to a specific set of priorities and actions.