Goal Setting

Setting goals is a big part of our lives. As infants, milestones or goals are pre-determined to ensure babies are developing normally. There are many goals in school. There is always a barely passing grade, and then there is the perfect score. As we grow older, we tend to set goals for ourselves.

My daughter sets goals at school and for swimming. She thinks that the academic goals are more straightforward. If she determines the goal to be 100% and she gets it, she is considered mission accomplished. She thinks that the goals for school have a finite number.

However, to her, swimming seems to involve endless goals. She feels that if she achieves a set goal in swimming, she then will have to move on toward another goal. The idea of having endless goals appears to bother her, because she prefers to have an ending.

My daughter has an interesting perspective. I see that school has endless goals. You achieve a goal, pass a test, then you qualify to advance to the next grade up. You can study in the undergraduate level, advance to masters, doctorate, more doctorate, etc. The possibilities are endless, or I suppose you get to decide when to stop.

That does not mean that you stop learning. As a human being existing in this world, I believe it is our responsibility to learn every day. Learn new things, learn from our mistakes and grow. I think if you stop growing, you stop living.

I see having infinite possibilities as a marvelous thing. I believe that we often underestimate what we can do or what we can achieve. It is interesting to see what we are capable of if we set a goal that seems to be a far reach for us.

If we do not set a goal, then we do not have a direction to go. We may be all scattered, out of focus, and may not achieve much. If we set a goal that is easy to reach, then there is not much to learn or grow from it. We are still the same, and we are not stretching our limits.

If we set a goal that we feel is too far-fetched, then we may get too intimidated to even consider its possibility. We may avoid it and not do much about it.

What if we set a goal that is a stretch, but we believe that is doable and possible? That will open up our minds to imagine the possibilities. We will be open to find ways to accomplish that goal. We will continue to learn throughout the process, and even if we do not achieve the goal in the set time, we would have grown as a person.

I invite you to welcome infinite possibilities. Set a goal that is somewhat of a reach for yourself. When you achieve it, then set another goal. If you do this in different aspects of your life, one day you will realize how far you have come to where you are today.