Facinating Thoughts

How To Make A Goal Without Breaking Your Heart February 2, 2011

We constantly make goals. We believe that making goal will help us to accomplish things. Yet most of time those precious goals only manage to give us misery. The sinking feeling, the regret, the depression we felt when the moment of truth hits us and we know we failed once again to pass that elusive goal line.

A good goal will do magic. A bad goal will kill. A misguided goal is worse than having no goal at all. How to make a goal without breaking our heart?

First, a good goal has to be positive. None likes to be yelled at. So don’t let our goal stares down to us. Therefore, instead of saying “I’m not going to quit exercising”, say “I’m going to exercise two times a week”.

Second, a good goal has to be rewarding. No matter how hard we try, we are not going to stand on top of an Olympic podium anytime soon. We don’t withhold treat from our dogs until they finish learning a trick. Instead, we offer treat for every step of improvement. We should do the same thing to ourselves. A nice dinner, a gadget, a movie, a party, a day of doing nothing, etc. Anything that makes us happy will refill our energy tank and make us craving for the next step.

On the other hand, a good goal has to be challenging. If it’s a walk in the park, unless we are on crutches, there won’t be any tears and elation. Will we feel like pumping our fists skyward when we achieve the goal? If not, then better to make the goal a little harder.

However, if we decide to challenge ourselves to play golf like Tiger Woods (before his many other adventures), not only we are not going to achieve our goal, but we will most likely not to be bothered to do anything about it at all. Under every lofty goal there is a pile of crushed dreams, beautiful excuses, and bruised soul.

No one can reach the moon in one giant leap. If a goal is too hard, break it down to many smaller goals that are challenging but also achievable (if we try really hard). Any goal has to be specific and measurable. Never underestimate our capability to fool ourselves into believing that we have crawl over the goal line.

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