GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALS! (Part 1)
Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
~George Bernard Shaw
I am a creature of habit. Without fail, every January 1 I generally come up with some good goals that I want to accomplish the next year. Ones that will make me better, smarter, richer, and yes, even thinner (I'm always trying to lose that weight Tiffany continues to put on me. It's all her fault). But part of that habit entails starting strong and after about two weeks, my goals have gone by the wayside.
I have a coworker who is quite the rabid enthusiast when it comes to making and keeping goals. For the last six years I have been quite amazed at the attentiveness and ability she has had to keep to her goals. The one goal I think she missed over the last few years was one that she made with me. She wanted to learn some Chinese, (which some of you may recall I learned on a mission I served in Canada) and together we were going to brush up on our Chinese. Well, she missed that goal that year. I felt bad, because she is not one to miss her goals and because of me she did.
It has caused me to pause and consider my great ability to procrastinate and not accomplish what I set out to do. I get bored with things after just a few days, or possibly weeks. To be honest, I am amazed that I have continued this blog as long as I have. If it wasn't for people asking me how Tiffany is doing, I bet I would have moved on. With that said, I think this lack of accomplishing goals has done something else for me. I think that I learn a lot of different skill sets in a lot of different subject areas because I move on so often. It has made me a Jack of many trades, but master of very few. But I want to master some skills. And I am going to try again. Like the little green warrior said:
Do or do not, there is no try.
~Yoda
OK, so tomorrow, I will post a few of my (and possibly Tiffany's) goals for next year. Hoping that an open audience will hold me to them, acting, as it were, as my conscience. It's time to start saying to myself, "why not?"
I hope you will think of some yourself.
Cheers,
Nathan
In the spirit of your post and my own all too familiar version of your experience, you might "noodle" the following as you welcome in 2011.
ReplyDelete(1) http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6768&x=52&y=5
(2)http://lds.org/new-era/1989/11/the-power-of-commitment?lang=eng
The "one thing" you need to know about each? (1) goals with the most longevity derive from an overarching purpose that is clear and meaningful.
(2) [from the article] "...You need to have the discipline and commitment to do the things you’ve promised, long after the emotion under which you made the commitment has died."
I've come back to these reads many times over the years in an effort to deepen the "sticking power" of my own goals and related efforts to achieve them. Imperfect as my efforts have been, I've consistently gleaned from the good stuff in the words from both brethren. Thanks for keeping this going friend!