I gave a goal update yesterday in my last blog post and wrote about some of my goal failure. However, less than 12 hours later I am starting May off on the right foot. I just finished my morning cardio — I am tied with my April workouts of 1. And on top of that I am posting which is more than I can say for the last week and a half.
I read a goal philosophy a while ago about, not only setting goals, but keeping momentum and also retracking them if they fall to the wayside. The main focus of the philosophy wasn’t about the setting of the goals nor the achieving of them. The take home message was on the journey of working on the goals mainly because that is where all the hard work is. And if you think about it, it really makes sense.
In the big picture, setting goals really doesn’t take much time or effort. And basking in the accomplishment of finished goals feels really good but probably comes very natural to most of us. The bulk of the effort is in the journey and work of the goals. And so often we let the failure or off track goals get the best of us. We might give up; we might be demoralized; we might even stop all effort. The key at that time is for us to just pick back up, put our nose to the grindstone and get back to working on the goals. Are they behind schedule? Maybe. But time is only ONE element of achieving a goal. There is only one marathon winner, however, I view everyone that completes a marathon a winner only because it is such a lofty physical goal.
It is similar with goal setting. Time is only one element and achieving a goal beyond a set time limit can often be just as rewarding only because the time factor sometimes is only a guess in goal setting. For example, I need to finish working on a will for our family. Ideally, that should be finished fairly soon. However, as long as I continue living, not finishing that item doesn’t have a negative impact. I should not let that demoralizing goal failure keep me from continuing on from accomplishing that goal because ultimately an in-place will is what I want — not an in-place will by Friday.
So today being a new day, being a new month, I am getting back in the saddle and working on retracking my goals. Cardio was first on the list this morning followed by a new post. Check on both of those. And I am looking forward to a much better end of May goal report.
If you have some off track goals like I do, what are you waiting for? Get back on ’em!
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
