In coaching we often talk about helping clients go “from A to B.”  In those conversations, “B” is the next place, the next stage, the next reality the client wants to experience.  We all need a sense of what’s next, so we need to know where we are (“A”) and where we want to be next (“B”).  But we also need to think farther down the road – much, much farther.

A “Z” Goal is unlike any other goal a person sets for himself.  It’s not the next thing, or the thing after that, or the 25^th thing after that (for those of you who are counting).  No, it’s the last thing, the final goal, the ultimate aim.

The ancient Greeks had a word for the ultimate aim on one’s life: telos.  It means the end purpose, or the essential goal.  For Aristotle, the telos of a human life was to be the kind of person who could live in and contribute well to the polis (the city state of which he was a citizen).  Aristotle believed that every endeavor (the B goal, the C goal, etc.) should be judged as worthy or unworthy based on how it helped or hindered in reaching one’s telos.  Having a sense of telos brought clarity and discernment to one’s life and helped a person live a good life.

When Aristotle and his ilk talked about telos, they were talking about a Z Goal.  You see, a Z Goal is not just where you hope to end up by the end of your life, it’s the goal that orients all your other goals and a reality that you hope to see expressed in each and every goal you set and reach.

Clark was a client who was constantly moving from A to B, but with very little sense of his ultimate purpose.  When I asked him where he was going in life, he replied half-jokingly, “I’m going crazy because I’m going from one thing to next, and then the next, and then the next.”  He was tired, but he was also disoriented.  The next project at work, the next vacation with his family, the next social connection at the club, the next retreat at church were all just disconnected goals – disconnected from one another and disconnected from any clarifying sense of where it was all headed and what it was all for.  As we worked together, Clark soon faced a terrible truth: he didn’t have a Z Goal.

What do you do for a client who lacks a Z Goal?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Assume they have a fuzzy, still-forming Z Goal somewhere in their head and heart. While most clients don’t have a clearly articulated Z Goal that provides a strong sense of purpose and discernment to life, they very likely have the beginnings of a Z Goal.
2. Help the client explore her values, relationships, and deepest beliefs. Don’t reach too quickly for a pre-determined Z Goal, because doing so can limit the long-term effectiveness of the Z Goal.  When we work, strive, sweat and suffer for a truth, the truth can shape us at a deep level.  So help her work for the awareness.
3. Exercise care and diligence in distinguishing the Z Goal from its imposter: self-expression. Some clients will confuse telos with self-expression.  They are not the same thing. Telos assumes each of us is created to be a certain kind of person and that we must be transformed into this fullest, most complete version of our self.  Self-expression assumes we are already the fullest version of our self and we just need to unleash it.  So if your client starts talking personality, preferences, strengths, etc., watch out.  These are good things, but they have zero relationship to her Z Goal.
4. Invite the client to imagine various versions of life based on different Z Goals. If he aligns his life with these certain truths, what will that life look like in a year, five years, or 20 years?
5. As the client works, be a great listener. Do more than just summarize what he’s saying; help him clarify his thinking by offering paraphrases and by connecting his thoughts in new and helpful ways.  Keep track of where he is in the process and keep him encouraged so he doesn’t get lost or get stalled.
6. Be ready for struggle. One’s Z Goal is closely tied to character.  As a client explores this, he does so as someone whose character is not yet whole.  So he may not have the depth of character yet to value depth of character.
7. As things begin to gel, help your client move from considering to committing. I had one client commit to her Z Goal by getting a tattoo that represented the kind of person she longed to be.  Another client calculated (with the help of an actuary) how many weeks of life he most likely had and created a string of beads with a bead for each week of life.  On Sunday evening, he takes a bead from the string and places it in one of two containers: was this a week in which I lived into my telos, or was this a week that I wasted on something else?  Very powerful.