On Goals, Part 2: Attacking Goals

This is the second of a two-part miniseries concerning the topic of goals.

When I left you last night, I let you ruminate on the thought of goals. There is no ideal difficulty level when it comes to setting goals. You must simply aim for that which you want and/or that which you have the capacity to achieve. Today we are going to stay on the topic of goals but shift gears a little bit.

Let’s say you have established a set of goals for yourself. How do you go about attacking these goals? Do you set forth a plan of action or do you dive headfirst? Do you give a little of your effort to all of the goals or do you attack one or two of them with ferocious intensity?

When I began to investigate my own responses to these questions, my life finally began to make sense. It was a true “Aha!” moment. I finally figured out the primary sources for my successes, my missteps, and my burnouts.

My goal-setting and pursuing has always lacked a sense of balance. While I have always been the type of person to set forth a plan of action (flawed or not) before doing something, I have always attacked a couple goals at a time with an extreme amount of intensity. A friend once described it as “persistent determination near the point of obsession". Many times that intensity has resulted in success, but at a cost. When I lost weight in 2008, I lost some maturity and industriousness in the process. When the bitter pills of 2010 led me to reevaluate my behavior and attitude, I regained a sense of self while I slowly lost control of my physical well-being. Heaven forbid I set my determination on a romantic pursuit. That intensity is a total recipe for large-scale failure and burnout. I have always tended to focus on one thing with such intensity and myopia that I quite often lose sight of the bigger picture.

If I have learned one thing in my life, it is the importance of balance. Balance in all areas is not a luxury; it is an absolute and inarguable necessity. When setting goals, drive is a good thing. Intensity makes things happen in a timely fashion. But we can never get so focused on one area that we let the other areas slip. In transforming our weaknesses into strengths, we must be careful to not allow our own myopia to create new weaknesses from areas that were previously strengths.

If this two day of discussion of goals has taught you anything, it has hopefully taught you the following things. First, it is great to set goals. Goals keep life interesting and stimulate personal progress. We must set goals that coincide with our desires and our determination. After we have set these goals for ourselves, we must determine a course of action. Remember that as in all things, balance is a necessity. Attack each goal with the proper effort and intensity, but do not let other areas of your life slip as a result of this intensity. Improvement in one area does not have to be made with a sacrifice in another area. Please, never stop setting goals and never stop achieving those goals. Aspire each day to be just a little bit better than you were the previous day. Just be smart about it.