As one year ends and another begins, people begin thinking about resolutions and such. A resolution is useless unless it is written and specific with a time table to accomplish it. In short, it should be a goal, not a resolution. A resolution is a dream; a goal is a roadmap to achieve it.
I learned years ago that there are four reasons people do not bother setting a goal.
First, people have been told about goals but not sold about goals. If you do not know the direction in which you are going, you are very likely to end up elsewhere.
Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Too often, that is how people approach goals– by default, not design. There is a line in the bible that says it best: “If the eye be single, the body is full of light; if the eye be evil, the body is full of darkness.” Know where you are going. Destination is half the battle in goal-setting. Resolutions and goals should be dreams with a deadline.
Second, people do not know how to set a goal.
It is pretty simple. Answer these questions and now your 80% along your path: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW.
Third, people are afraid they are going to fail. Nobody likes to fail but many great feats are accomplished by people who were not smart enough to know they were not possible.
When you fail, you are not separated from your goal. In fact, failure is the process by which one must achieve a goal. It helps measure the distance in which you still must go. Rest on the ladder’s rung, yes, but know it is a measurement of progress, not just a rest stop.
Between the big things that we convince ourselves we cannot do and the little things we will not do, we fall prey to failure. In other words…“sweat the small stuff.” It is not too late to bloom unless you choose the death of your dream. Do not over-think a goal as that is the first seed to its failure.
The final reason we do not set goals outweighs the rest combined: People are-afraid they might succeed! The best angle to succeed is the “try-angel.” Get in the game for goodness sake. People legitimately do not think they deserve success, and so many accept second place simply because it is available. Like the old joke says… set your goals low so you will not be disappointed.
When John Kennedy was running for President, a reporter asked him if he would accept a slam-dunk position as a Vice Presidential candidate as opposed to running for President and possibly failing. Kennedy’s response: “Why should I accept number two when number one is available?”
Ringo Starr once said, “Of course I am ambitious. What is wrong with that?” Ambition is a hallmark of confidence and a can-do attitude, an approach that says I deserve to be here.
When I competed in the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters in 1977 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada I won the event but was disqualified for going eight seconds over my allotted time limit. I got a standing ovation in the middle of that speech. Want to guess how long it lasted? Eight seconds.
A year later, I competed again in the same championship in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and won the contest. The biggest lesson I learned from that at the ripe old age of 28 was that you have to go through Toronto to get to Vancouver. Worry less about mopping up the floor cluttered with life’s problems and more about turning off the faucet emitting those obstacles.
My own life has been full of failures. Failure is the process by which we succeed. I ran for the House of Representatives in 1980 and got the starch beat out of me. Lesson learned: It is cheaper to buy a politician than it is to be one. I say that half jokingly but the biggest problem was I really was not sure why I wanted to enter politics. Yes both, my uncle and my grandfather were successful politicians, but I am not sure that was not my motivation.
At the outset of this essay, I suggested that you answer the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW questions. The most important of those questions is the WHY question. Know-how is important; know-why is infinitely more important. It is okay to know your limits but one must never stop trying to exceed them. All people dream but not necessarily equally. The difference lay in the answer to WHY.
