Goals…just saying that word makes me feel like I’m back in ninth grade headed straight for the principal’s office. It wasn’t my goal to be stuffed into a front office desk and told to look nowhere but in a book…as a fully energized student with more imagination power than Aqua Man I had an extremely difficult time focusing on a single object.
Most people can’t seem to latch onto something so simple—it requires energy and motivation and when your mind body and soul are blessed with limited supply, no matter how driven you are…the presentation of goal making sounds like a stupid stunt at the circus.
What gives here? How did I ever become a second degree black belt in martial arts? No matter how much money you dump into the Master’s front pocket no belt is automatically wrapped around your waist. It required a goal.
Ouch! There’s that word again!
Todd Harris teaches goal making in the way of exposing not today or tomorrow’s short lived plan but rather long term and distance. As vivid and totally insane as my imagination is and will forever be, focus, energy and motivation are easily located when the horizon becomes my arrival. As a second degree, we are taught to live the life and style of a Master. A lower belt, green, blue and red aren’t supposed to see a black belt ceremony as the final presentation of their personal journey but rather learn to recognize the footwork that’ll lead their studies into a community they can help change.
Leo Babauta who authored The Power of Less invites us to limit ourselves to fewer goals. It opens the door for more things to be achieved.
If winning is a choice, so is choosing a goal. Create a list of ten things you’d be extremely happy to accomplish in the next few years. It’s only natural to think you can take them all on but don’t become a do it all Arroe and learn the method of pick me up again and again. Process your goals one at a time.
If you have desire you’ll have accomplishment. The problem with today’s way of living is based on our impatience. I want it now. I don’t want to wait for it. I deserve this opportunity. Yeah right, if your Grandpa was here right now he’d whap you upside the skull and tell you to get a grip on reality you spoiled snot.
Lou says, “Break it down to sub-goals.”
Locate your goal then put it into smaller circles that can be reached month by month. A jump turning hook kick cannot be perfected unless you’ve nearly mastered the side kick…which you learn as a white belt. Breaking your goals down helps you understand the required steps to achieve them.
I would die a happy man if I could land the Wal-Mart greeter job. I love welcoming people into all walks of life and I see that position as being the most spectacular place to one day end up. But to hold that position I must be fully ready and able to say hello to everyone, including the mean nasty grumpy people who have nothing better to do than hum bug their weekend away. So where do I practice? Movie theaters! I love watching people get excited when they talk about the movie they’re about to see. Learning to listen to them first prepares me for that future gig at Sam’s place.
Weekly goals are essential in the process of staying true to that long term success story. A sub-goal invites you to reach out and touch it, shape it then deliver it. More importantly, given to your efforts is something called ample space…which is all you need to further your knowledge through research at the library or World Wide Web.
Those evil medical officials barked in my face, “You can’t go back to Tae Kwon Do!” Has it stopped me from reaching my long term dream of being named a Master by 50? To get back to the school has forced me to pick up my white belt and wear it again and again. As hard as I try to push my limits beyond sixty full minutes of hard play…the new body given to me can barely make it to through three forms. Can you imagine how ugly I’d feel in front of other students when the old man from the radio can’t pull off the twelve forms he’s spent nearly ten years perfecting?
My sub-goal isn’t to make it to the 12th performance…as stupid as it seems, its my mission to make sure I don’t forget how to do them, even if its one at a time. Each form can range from twenty eight to over 100 moves. I’d rather be the student who can still pull off a white belt Ill Jang than someone who bounces and pounces around like Tigger on Winnie the Pooh.
Daily action is painfully important. Achieving that goal cannot happen unless your steps are pushed closer to that mountain. You’re either going over it, below it, through it, around it or walking away…there’s no other choice. Take it on and make winning the choice.
If you find passion in writing and feel one day you deserve to have a book placed on a Barnes and Noble shelf…go for it…one page at a time. Don’t stop to edit…just get it out of your system. Once free for the world to see, embrace it as a reader, go back and feel your way through each word delivered which will lead you to a professional editor such as www.wendywellswrites.com. Then take it another step and find a Book’s on a Demand printer and master your own marketing plan without having to wait for boo hoo big wig New York City companies. It’s the new millennium baby! You don’t need Corporate America to win in the game of life.
You just need a goal.
Steal my art…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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