Friday, March 27, 2009

Goals and Challenges

The other day, while having a relaxing lunch break I found myself thinking about goals in life and the things that may keep us from achieving them. I texted some of my friends to ask what one of their lifelong goal was, which they hadn’t yet accomplished. The responses I got were interesting and fun. Some were about achieving a certain professional career goal, some about traveling the world, some about sexual fantasies and some about finding true love. The initial purpose of my question was to get to know more about the people I care about, but their responses generated a serious inner conversation about my own goals and the challenges I face. Some of these goals include: finishing my Business/Finance degree, getting back in shape/living a healthier lifestyle, finding a good man to marry (true love?) and have kids with, developing the talents I know I have, helping others, travel the world... just to name a few. I was surprised to realize I have absolute control of most of those goals and there is absolutely nothing in my way which should be keeping me from achieving them.  The lack of organization, the wrong order of priorities or simple laziness are the main excuses I could come up with. Being aware of these facts is not enough for me to change. I realize I need to have more specific goals or a more detailed action plan to execute and stay in track. I also need to find motivation within myself to not abandon the race. Another personal challenge is the tendency to fall off the wagon when I have a bad day or a disappointing result.  We could be our toughest critic at times, and be so hard on ourselves that instead of moving forward, we stop trying.  Don’t get me wrong, having high expectations isn’t a bad thing, but when we let the disappointment freeze us, when we believe that a bad day, or a bad step means that we’re not strong enough and we are indeed a failure, we can destroy ourselves.  Perfectionism can deteriorate our motivation; the mindset prohibits us from moving forward. I won’t publically write out my action plan or the details about my goals and challenges because I understand that the commitment is to myself, but the reason I chose to write about this was to perhaps make you all reflect upon these things and inspire you to meditate and act differently. I hope whoever reads this gives me some feedback and maybe ideas on how they overcame a challenge, or just share their success story. Hopefully we can inspire and help each other out.  Let's ponder... what is stoping us?  What is driving us?  How can we become better?  How far are we from the goal line?  Thanks you guys!

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