Got goals?

By now, and before you come to this page, you should have written at least a few goals. Haven't done it? STOP RIGHT NOW AND DO IT! Don't make me yell at you! You have goals? Ok, great! I can't help but think of a Van Halen song called "Dreams". Awesome lyrics! You're just lucky I can't sing it to you right now. So, let's move ahead.

Your goals are likely to change throughout your life. But we need a starting position and a destination. When we go on vacation, our destination may be Cleveland, OH. At some point, we reach our destination, and then we have a new destination. Sometimes we see a little point of interest off the side of the road and we visit that for a bit. That's ok, we need to not be so focused on the destination that we forget to enjoy the journey. But just remember, we must get back on track at some point.

But focus is important in order to get to where we want to be. That's why we write things down, it keeps us focused. We should check on our goals from time to time. Often, just focusing on our goals gives us the road map of how to reach our goals, but sometimes we need to decide how to reach our goals by breaking it down and making mini-goals that will help us to arrive at our destination.

There is never just one way to get there. And just like traveling to Cleveland, OH, some roads may have detours that we may have to go back and find a different way. When you hit a dead-end, the important thing to remember is that you now know something that you didn't know before. Find something positive about the experience. It's pointless to get angry about it and it's counter-productive to give up. You must still move towards your goal. Complaining, feeling sorry for yourself, getting angry, even getting frustrated is a waste of your energy, your time, and it takes away from your focus. So, don't allow yourself to be taken away from your intended focus by letting pointless negative emotions get the best of you.

At this point, when there are detours or dead-ends that frustrate you, it is an opportune time to pull up your goals list again. Reviewing your goals list will help you remember what you are doing, what you are here for, and helps you realize what the point is in all this. Journal about it, write down what you've learned from the experience. Every experience can be labeled as good or bad, it's your choice. We can either take something positive from it and move forward, or sit on the ground and throw a hissy fit. If you are throwing a hissy fit, I am walking away right now. Catch up to me later if you decide.

So, from here on out, we have goals. We know what those goals are, and they are written down. We are reviewing those goals from time to time to refocus ourselves. And we are journaling about our experiences along the way. If we find ourselves journaling about our frustrations, or complaining or feeling sorry for ourselves, we can see it in the journal more quickly. We will then acknowledge it, and decide to let them go, and then take something positive from the experience. Now we are ready to move forward. No harm, no foul, and in fact, we are now smarter for it.

We can now move on to being grateful next.