“A journey to nowhere will take you nowhere.”
A goal is an aim towards which our endeavour is directed; it is the destination of our journey; it is the crystallization of our dreams; it is the expression of our desires; it is giving shape to our vision. A goal is recognizing and identifying our very own mission in life.
To do anything, we have to first identify our goal before we can start working on it. We have to know what we want to achieve before we can make any attempt do so. Doing anything and everything needs an identified goal. We can’t travel without a destination, we can’t shoot without an aim, we can’t construct without a blueprint, we can’t cook without knowing what we want to cook, we can’t write without knowing what we want to write, in fact, we can’t do anything without knowing what we want to do. Identifying our goal is the first step towards our destination without which the journey cannot start. A journey to nowhere will take us nowhere; we need to know our destination to reach it.
Philip McGraw, in his book Life Strategies, say, if you cannot name, and with great specificity, what is that you want, then you will never be able to step up and claim it.
"They build too low who build beneath the skies." –Young
"No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings." –W. Blake.
"Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly much higher than if aimed at an object on the level with yourself." –J. Hawes.
Identifying your goal is not enough in itself, it has to be planned and executed as well. Planning is an important part of your goal setting. If it is a big venture it may need to be done in phases. Every detail has to be planned and the sequence in which the work has to be done worked out. Even something as simple as a long journey has to be planned in phases, it has to be done in parts. We will have to plan how much distance we can cover in one day, where we will stay for the night, what time we want to leave the next day so that we can cover the planned distance for that day, how many days it will take us, where do we want to stay on our way, and so on. If we just pick up our car and start moving without planning we run a high risk of getting into trouble.
We can also fix target for various stages of our growth. Fixing targets is a very good way to keep going, it improves our efficiency. Targets motivate us into action and meeting our targets is like achieving small victories on our way to success. This in turn brings its own rewards in the form of energizing us and keeping us focused. For example, when you are doing a weekly column for a paper, the Editor told you to send your work by Friday every week, but you set your target for Wednesday. You are able to meet your target without fail no matter how busy you are. Sending your work early gave you a sense of satisfaction and the freedom to pursue other things as well without the pressure of an approaching deadline. If you look at it closely, working Wednesday to Wednesday is the same as working Friday to Friday. The only difference is that you do not have the pressure of a deadline hanging on your head and you also have the satisfaction of having met your target and this helps in your efficiency and performance.
However much we may have planned and prepared for our journey towards our goals there might still be time when we may not be able to go about our plans the way we planned; we may need to alter our plans. For example, if a tree falls in a storm and blocks our way we will not stand there waiting for the tree to be removed before we proceed further, we will take a detour and go. A detour is just a different road to the same destination and we should not hesitate to take it where required. Our destination is important not the route, change it if it is wise to do so.
To do anything, we have to first identify our goal before we can start working on it. We have to know what we want to achieve before we can make any attempt do so. Doing anything and everything needs an identified goal. We can’t travel without a destination, we can’t shoot without an aim, we can’t construct without a blueprint, we can’t cook without knowing what we want to cook, we can’t write without knowing what we want to write, in fact, we can’t do anything without knowing what we want to do. Identifying our goal is the first step towards our destination without which the journey cannot start. A journey to nowhere will take us nowhere; we need to know our destination to reach it.
Philip McGraw, in his book Life Strategies, say, if you cannot name, and with great specificity, what is that you want, then you will never be able to step up and claim it.
"They build too low who build beneath the skies." –Young
"No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings." –W. Blake.
"Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly much higher than if aimed at an object on the level with yourself." –J. Hawes.
Identifying your goal is not enough in itself, it has to be planned and executed as well. Planning is an important part of your goal setting. If it is a big venture it may need to be done in phases. Every detail has to be planned and the sequence in which the work has to be done worked out. Even something as simple as a long journey has to be planned in phases, it has to be done in parts. We will have to plan how much distance we can cover in one day, where we will stay for the night, what time we want to leave the next day so that we can cover the planned distance for that day, how many days it will take us, where do we want to stay on our way, and so on. If we just pick up our car and start moving without planning we run a high risk of getting into trouble.
We can also fix target for various stages of our growth. Fixing targets is a very good way to keep going, it improves our efficiency. Targets motivate us into action and meeting our targets is like achieving small victories on our way to success. This in turn brings its own rewards in the form of energizing us and keeping us focused. For example, when you are doing a weekly column for a paper, the Editor told you to send your work by Friday every week, but you set your target for Wednesday. You are able to meet your target without fail no matter how busy you are. Sending your work early gave you a sense of satisfaction and the freedom to pursue other things as well without the pressure of an approaching deadline. If you look at it closely, working Wednesday to Wednesday is the same as working Friday to Friday. The only difference is that you do not have the pressure of a deadline hanging on your head and you also have the satisfaction of having met your target and this helps in your efficiency and performance.
However much we may have planned and prepared for our journey towards our goals there might still be time when we may not be able to go about our plans the way we planned; we may need to alter our plans. For example, if a tree falls in a storm and blocks our way we will not stand there waiting for the tree to be removed before we proceed further, we will take a detour and go. A detour is just a different road to the same destination and we should not hesitate to take it where required. Our destination is important not the route, change it if it is wise to do so.
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