Goals.
Hockey has them.
Soccer has them.
Football has both goal posts and goal lines.
Basketball even has “goaltending”.
Just what is it about “goals” that makes them so important, valuable, and worth protecting?
Do you have goals?
What is it that goals provide?
Goal – an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve
How does the following statement make you feel?
“A goal without action is just a dream.”
For me it felt like a slap in the face, but it woke me up. I realized the power in taking action. If you want something bad enough, you’ll do the work to achieve it; else why do it?
It could be said, “Your goal becomes your ‘why’. If your goal isn’t big enough, then you ‘why’ isn’t either.”
All my life I wanted to be a writer. Why? Because at the time I felt there weren’t enough quality offerings in the children’s book genre. I would simply write the next great children’s book. I mean, how difficult could it be?
I had a vision, but I needed a plan. I needed to take action.
I took correspondence courses to understand “writing stuff” – things like point of view, character & plot development, and “tenses”, but quit because the monthly assignments were “unimaginative and limiting”. Learning was boring. I needed to write while I was excited about the idea.
I jotted my ideas in a notebook, but I never expanded upon them. “Too busy”, I told myself.
Then blogging “became a thing”. So, I decided to blog instead of write the children’s book. I was an infrequent blogger at best . I fooled myself into thinking I was “writing” even though the blogs were infrequent & rare…maybe once a month if I was lucky.
Then one day my friend Lennox challenged me. “Hey, I made it a goal to write a song a week for the remainder of the year, do you think you could write a blog a week? You should make that a goal and we can hold each other accountable.”
Something resonated inside me. Maybe it was simply the word “goal”. Maybe it was the “accountability piece”. I don’t know…
I accepted that challenge and over the past two years I have met the goal every week. I became consistent with my blogging. I think my writing skills have improved. I now blog with excitement & look forward to updating and sharing with you each week.
However, this year I am “upping” the ante.
My new goal is to blog every Tuesday & Thursday. Yes, I am a little nervous, but “just know” I’ll easily make the goal each week. I believe in me. Self belief is powerful. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?
As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
About the children’s book…I now have a few pages written and illustrations sketched. It sits on my desk at work where I can stare at it as a daily reminder of what is in my writing future…my “long term goal”. It’s my “do a little bit each day/week/month and over time it will create a big thing” activity.
But…
the “short term goal” is all about blogging twice a week. There’s something satisfying in achieivng a set goal.
Two years ago I was unsure of myself, my abilities and uninspired. Today, it’s a completely different story. I truly believe, “I am a writer and writers write.”
That’s what a goal can do.
That’s what taking action to achieve a goal can do.
So, in answer to “Why?” I say “Why not!”
How ’bout you?
Dan’s View 