Let’s do this!

This morning, I found myself thinking about goals.  Not in the way you might imagine.  I wasn’t considering the goals I had set for my day.  Instead, I was thinking about the idea of goals.  Allow me to explain.

From the time we are young, hopefully, goal setting is being modeled for us.  For example, the other night, my granddaughter really wanted a piece of chocolate. No surprise there, right?  4-year-olds love candy.  Of course this had to happen during dinner.  So, I told her that if she could eat all of her fruit and four big bites (not toddler nibbles) of her Mac-and-cheese, I would give her a piece of chocolate.  Goal setting for a little one.  Another example of goal setting can be seen in elementary classrooms across the nation.  Each morning, the teacher tells the students what they need to complete that morning in order to enjoy their full recess.  If they don’t finish, they lose recess in order to do so.  Goal setting.

I’m sure you can think of a dozen other ways that goal setting is modeled to youngsters.  The content of the model increases in difficulty as children age, but the purpose remains the same.  We want to help young people learn to set goals.  If we are doing it well, we model goal setting that includes realistic, attainable goals.  We pay honor to the idea that we must be aware of the time spent on the goal.  We even provide opportunities for our models to teach the viewer to set priorities when more than one goal is presented.  

Hmm, this sounds ridiculously similar to the way we hope to set and use goals as adults, doesn’t it?  At least, I hope that you are setting goals for yourself.  I hope that you take into account the amount of time it will take to complete your goals and that you are setting goals that are realistic and attainable.  It sounds wonderful to say that one will travel to all 50 states in their lifetime, but it doesn’t make sense to say that one will do that over the span of one week.  

Take some time today to consider some recent goals that you’ve set for yourself.  Did you achieve them, or are you working towards that?  Do you set goals because you have been told that its important to do so, and then quickly move on to other things?  If so, what was the point of setting them in the first place?  

I firmly believe that we should set goals for ourselves.  Doing so provides a focus for our time and energy. Goals provide purpose and meaning for our days.  Accomplishing them gives us a sense of pride in our abilities.  

This week, as you endeavor to complete the tasks you have set for yourself, take some time to reflect on the process you undertook.  How did you decide what was important for your day or week?  Did you have incentive to work on a particular goal? We’re your goals internally or externally motivated - I mean were they set because you put power behind them or because someone or something outside of you gave power to the goal?

Our days are long and often full of activity.  Make it a point to choose activities that are going to enrich them.