I once read a quote that said something along the lines of, “Your goals should be just out of reach, that way you always keep striving.” I thought about that for a long time and have come to the conclusion; that is a crazy and frustrating way to live. Setting goals that are just out of reach may seem like a good concept, but what about all the agony that comes with never reaching your goal. If you set a goal and reach it, then you can increase the goal ever so slightly and reach it again. How much more satisfying would this be.
I like to think of goal setting as an endurance sport. If you haven’t been running in a year, your not going go out and run a marathon today. You would just be setting yourself up for failure and disappointment and what fun is that. Now if you go out and say your going run 1/2 a mile, that may be a reachable goal. Every week you can keep increasing that goal and hitting it. That is what goal setting is about; set yourself up for something that is attainable and then once you get there increase the goal and make it a little bit harder.
I recently set a goal of following the raw diet for 21 days, but I failed at the goal, because I set the bar to high. I would have succeeded if I set it at 7 days and then increased afterwards. You do want to be challenged when setting goals, but you need to figure out what is a challenge for you, yet achievable. I should of known eating raw food only for 21 days over Thanksgiving, was not going happen, I set myself up for an unachievable goal. So after thinking about it how long can a carnivore, like me go on raw food for, about 7 days, is what my mind said.
So I learned a valuable lesson; goal setting needs to slowly progress and grow over time. After I accomplish 7 days raw, maybe I can do 12 days, than 15, than 21. How will it feel to accomplish it ever time. Goal setting skills is a lot like building muscles, it takes time and hard work, but over time and with small increases in the weight load you will see progress.
This does not mean I won’t should dream big, it is the big hope that drive me. I Just have to keep in perspective where I am are in compared to where you want to be. Try climbing several hills before a huge mountain. To make a big dream come true, figure out what I have to do to get there, set my goals and before I know it the goal will be just a step away. With a solid foundation I should reach it smoothly and easily.
This is just my thinking though. Have you set a goal that was just to hard to achieve, if so what was it?
