Chapter 47 Goals

We all set goals. Think about it: if you need  to catch a train at 8 am you get to the station a couple of minutes before. You may run late and miss the train, but you'd only do that a few times before you got tired of missing it .You'd only soon get yourself organised to leave earlier, or aim to catch a later train. That's goal setting.

We couldn't survive for long without setting goals. Goals are what keep us going. How often do we ear of someone retiring at sixty and dropping dead within a few months? When we have no purpose in life, no dream or goals, that's it, game over.

The problem with goals is people get caught up in the product, the end result or outcome, when their focus should be on the process. I'm reminded of the story of a student who approaches his karate master and asks, 'How long will it take me to attain a black belt?'. The master replies,"Five years.'.So the student asks, 'What if I train three days a week?'. 'Ten years,' replies the master. The student ask again, ' What if i train six days a week?' this time the master answer, 'Fifteen years.'

The point:  focus on accomplishing your goal in the present. Do what it takes lesson by lesson and eventually you will get the belt. Make no mistake: it's okay to look at the past and learn from it, picture the future and make plan for it. But to improve the present you must always return to ... you guessed it  -  the present.

But wait. That's not it. You need to be aware of another inherent danger in goal setting. Let me explain.We set goals to close a gap. The gap between the way things are and the way we think they should be. The problem with this approach is we tend to focus on the gap, especially when we face major obstacles, which makes us feel unhappy. Our feeling of disconnect saps our motivation and takes us further away from our goal.