During our Business Immersion Program, the CIBE had a wonderful opportunity to talk with and learn from Alumnus Sam Stewart ‘19 when he came to talk during day five of our internship. Many of us saw BIP as an opportunity to focus on personal goals such as exercising or eating clean, and Sam proved to be very helpful in encouraging us. He came with the focus of talking about goal setting, but more specifically, how to be effective in setting meaningful personalized goals.
While most ‘goal setting professionals’ opt to jump down people’s throats with talk of SMART goals and other bland frameworks, Sam had a different approach. More than anything else he stressed to us the question of why. Why does a goal matter to you? And why does that matter? And why that? Until there are no more questions. By breaking a goal down to the rawest motivations, it becomes much clearer that the stated goal is not so simple, but rather an expression of much deeper values. Then we were instructed to restate the goal again, this time focusing on “the why”, and the results were outstanding. Goals changed from being some silly exercise to becoming an achievable way to progress towards greater life ambitions. Goals should not be taxing, but rather genuinely rewarding.
Another reflection exercise we performed was an alignment activity in which we scored different aspects of our lives to determine effective goals. Some areas to work on might be body, mind, family, or soul, allowing us to see what parts of our lives could be improved upon through effective goal setting. Overall, this was a good touch on the Business Immersion Program as it served to remind many of us why we joined the CIBE in the first place. Being surrounded by a culture of ambitious peers has been the most impactful part of the program for me, and Sam Stewart did an excellent job of pulling that ambition out of everyone.
With that being said I would like to thank Sam Stewart and everyone who has come in and shared their life experiences with us through the CIBE for giving time out of their busy lives. Also, a special thank you to Cassie Hagan and Bryan Biddle for managing the BIP and giving up so many hours for us all.
