Chance Litton

“If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you expect to get there?”  - Basil S. Walsh

I am in a transitional period of my life.  A few years ago I was a carefree junior officer.  My primary duty was to drive a two billion dollar submarine like I owned it. I was married to my best friend, but without kids.  We port-hopped around the Pacific, lived it up on Dole Whip and prime aged Morton’s steaks in Hawaii, and bought up man-toys like there was no tomorrow.

Today, my daughter is approaching her second birthday and I still feel like a new father.  In two months I’m heading to a new ship as a department head - one of the three principle planning and execution officers under the captain and executive officer.  And not just any department head, but the Engineer, responsible for the safe operation of a nuclear power plant and the well-being of half the crew.  It’s a job that comes with an automatic promotion to lieutenant commander, but also with the implicit warning that that honor can and will be taken away along with your naval career, should you fail to perform as required. I have yet to meet a served Engineer without some gray hair.  At 31 years of age, with a couple of degrees, plenty of training and a little experience, the preparatory phase of my life is finally over.  It’s time to execute.

And so, while I still have a few weeks with the luxury of free time, I’ve been spending quite a bit of it reflecting on the new responsibilities in my life and trying to prepare myself for the trials to come.  During my 25 minute commute to department head school, I’ve repeatedly gone over what I hope to accomplish and how I plan on getting there.  But today, on my way home from my submarine duty physical, I realized all those thoughts were simply pie in the sky until I write them down.  As we say in the the nuclear navy, “training not documented is training not had.”  Or perhaps put more eloquentally by some wise author, “Goals that are not written down are just wishes.”

Having a precise goal set enables you to assess your own performance.  Is my behavior in line with achieving my goals?  Are my planning and organization mechanisms up to the task?  More importantly, goals provide a framework from which to make daily decisions.  Should I use my limited resources to accomplish this or do that?  Which option will make more progress towards my goal?

I ended up generating two separate goal sets; one for my professional life and the other for my personal life.  I wrote down my professional goals first, which may be a little backwards, as my professional goals by necessity grow out of my personal goals, but personal goals are more general, natural and implicitly understood.  It’s my professional life that is generating the most stress now anyhow, so it felt good to get those off my chest.  I certainly did not want to neglect my personal goals, though, as those are far more important.

I decided that each goal set required a single specific long-term goal, and that the short-term goals would be constructed to work towards that long-term goal over the next few years.  That long-term goal needs to be well defined.  It may be something very specific like a particular career milestone.  Even if it’s something less concrete, though, it needs to be well-defined.  “Be happy” is not sufficient.  Neither is “Get rich.” What is it exactly that will make me happy?  How much wealth is necessary and for what purpose do I wish to amass it?  What is the end state I want to achieve?

Then, I listed out the things I need to do now to achieve that ultimate goal in the future.  For each bullet, I first wrote what needed to be accomplished and then, because, as Stephen A. Brennan wrote, “Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan,” I wrote out how I expected to achieve that goal.  Finally, I went back through and roughly prioritized my goals, not simply by what is most important, but by which goals serve as a basis for all of the others and therefore must always be prevalent in my mind.

Being that I’m not a very private person - in fact, sometimes painfully not so (just ask my wife) - I decided to post the goals I came up with for any soul that happened to wander by chancelitton.com to read.  And, of course, I felt the need to add some discussion of how and why I came up with them.  I’ve been told so many times in canned training seminars that I should write down my goals, but I was given little to no examples of how such an exercise might work.  Hopefully, you, the reader, can gain some value from this discussion and perhaps generate a set of goals for yourself.  Feel free to share what you come up with.

Finally, keep in mind that there will probably be failures along the way.  While this will no doubt be disappointing, be ready to flex your plan and find a way to re-attack your ultimate goal.  Even so, some goals may never be achieved.  If that’s the case, take pride in the journey and find a new goal on which to focus your efforts.  Keep in mind that “it must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal.  The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach.” - Benjamin E. Mays

The Professional Goals of Chance Litton as of June 2009

Career Goal:  Command at Sea

Tour Goals as Engineer:

1)  Maintain my department’s standards of professional watchstanding, quality work, and accurate and timely reporting and record keeping by frequently touring the engineering spaces and monitoring daily operations.

2)  Ensure my department is prepared to carry out its primary mission - to keep the ship moving when the s**t hits the fan, regardless of underwater mountains, 30,000 ton tankers, torpedoes or depth charges - by insisting that all department and division training is effective, engaging and comprehensive.

3)  Prevent egregious errors that could injure personnel or disrupt ship’s operations by instilling appropriate degrees of caution and ownership in my supervisors and sailors.

4)  Help my captain achieve his goals for the ship by making his goals my goals and by anticipating his needs.

5)  Advance the professional development of the sailors and junior officers assigned to me by engaging them on a personal level and providing both positive and critical feedback on their performances.

6)  Assist in the safe navigation and effective operation of the ship by taking ownership of my watchsection and providing backup to the other principle officers when possible.

7)  Support my brother department heads by providing assistance when asked and maintaining a unified effort.

8)  Learn the skills necessary to function as executive officer and commanding officer by taking full advantage of trainer, at-sea experience and mentorship opportunities.

9)  Accept criticism in the spirit that it is intended to help my improve professionally and improve the performance of my department and the ship, even when it is not presented as such.

10) Stay ahead of events and keep track of deadlines, records and requirements by extensive planning and effective organization mechanisms.

11) Periodically self-assess my performance with regard to these goals and with the input of my senior supervisors, and reform my methods and behaviors as necessary.

The Personal Goals of Chance Litton as of June 2009

Life Goal:  Earn and maintain the trust and respect of my family by providing for their growth, happiness and welfare, and earn and maintain the trust of my peers by by pursuing and achieving professional milestones and providing exceptional service to my friends and my communities, so that, in my advanced years, I can look back on my life with satisfaction and few regrets.

Current Goals:

1)  Develop my daughter into a well-rounded, self-disciplined and self-respecting young adult by providing her with guidance, structure and instruction.

2)  Grow a bond of love, trust and respect with my daughter by frequently participating in activities and sharing experiences with her, and by having frequent and open conversations.

3)  Nurture and maintain my relationship with my wife by helping her achieve her professional goals, providing daily assistance with tasks at home, giving her frequent breaks from the full-time duties of motherhood, making time for open conversation and play-time, and striving to meet her expectations of me as a man, as a friend, and as a partner.

4)  Achieve and maintain a fit and healthy body by engaging in frequent, regular exercise, by eating reasonable snacks and meals, and by drinking water vice other options.

5)  Invest a fair share of limited free time to semi-constructive hobbies such as genealogy, writing, and reading for professional and philosophical enrichment in addition to purely escapist activities such as gaming, popular fiction and television.

6)  Keep in touch with extended family and friends through phone calls, skype and internet networking sites and volunteer assistance when needed.

7)  Take at least yearly extended family vacations by saving resources and making time for that purpose.

8)  Remain debt-free by expending only cash on hand (except for prohibitively large purchases with investment potential, such as a home).

9)  Finish a personal project at least once a year.

10) Try to be nice to my wife’s cat even though it is far inferior to my own cat and, of course, to our dog.

11) Make time to play and exercise with my dog.

12) Periodically self-assess my performance with regard to these goals and input from my wife and reform methods and behaviors as necessary.

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
  -  Yogi Berra