Home | Feature | CONCEPT OF SETTING GOALS

CONCEPT OF SETTING GOALS

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font


This the first half of a longer quote (which is too long for Twitter): “The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”


Using the longer version of the quote, I can think of so many things that this could apply to in my life. If you set a goal that you can easily achieve, that’s a step. But to me, a goal should take you beyond your comfort zone, and beyond your present skill level. It should help you grow and help you learn something new.

Stretch your limits


You can always make your goal to do the same thing you did last week (presuming you did things correctly last week). But you’ve already done that, so where’s the challenge?


That is what, in my opinion, what this quote is about. Setting goals that stretch your limits, and help you become more than you presently are.
Not too many people are happy where they are at in life. Most people want something more. More spring in their step, more knowledge at their fingertips, new skills, better tools or whatever might be appropriate to their situation.This requires growth.


This growth generally doesn’t happen on its own. It usually requires an outside force to help us overcome our momentum (stationary has momentum).
Goals are a great way to do this.


If you set goals for yourself that are beyond your current ability or knowledge, growth is mandatory, right?
Think of the standard New Year’s Resolutions. How are you going to lose weight? You’ll need to get smarter on food planning (it wasn’t good enough last year, or you wouldn’t be doing it again this year).


You’ll need to learn more about exercise, and find a way to make it work for you, since last time it didn’t quite go according to plan. You are already setting goals with growth built in, you just might not have thought of it in this manner.

Knowledge or skill


What goals do you have that involve things that you either don’t know how to do, or you have tried and failed at? I include failures, because (at least for me) most failures aren’t from lack of effort, but lack of knowledge or skill. This gives you a clue that you need to grow, right?
I often set goals that I really don’t know how I’m going to get them done.


For example, next on the to-do list for my rusty project car is to repair a badly rusted firewall and replace the area where the windshield meets the dash.
In concept, you just cut out the rusty bits and weld in clean metal. In practice, it’s not that easy. I will be learning a lot this fall as I work on that goal.
If you have been reading for a while, you probably have a list of goals, projects or self-improvement ideas from a prior exercise. If not, take a moment and write a few down. Now look at the list and find a couple that are short term (a month or less).


If you don’t have any that are that length, pull a chunk out of a longer project (instead of building a deck in the back yard, perhaps you could just work on the grading or the framing).Select a short project that you don’t know everything about.
Pick something where you will have to ask an expert (after finding one), learn a new skill, do some digging in the library or on the internet.

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: