Pissing Into A Wormhole, aka Dreaming
Do you set goals? I mean seriously challenging yet realistic weight-loss, health, or life goals?
I been putting a lot of thought into my goals and dreams lately. I’ve been updating my weight-loss timeline with my short, medium, and long term weight-loss goals for the year. I’ve also been trying to update my life goal list with anything and everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish or experience. You might have seen similar lists over at other blogger sites like Kepa, Mary, or Ann.
It’s always difficult to set goals that keep you motivated over long periods of time. They have to be achievable but not so remedial that you treat them as inconsequential. They should be large enough that they challenge you to grow yet not so large that you can’t ever attain them. It’s also ideal to have a high level of self-efficacy when achieving them.
So many people say they’re going to do something and might even call it a “goal”. Until they actually write it down though, they’re just pissing into a worm hole, unsure where in time and space it might land.
Goals vs. Dreams
So what separates a goal from a dream, or pissing into a worm hole as I call it?
Dreams are things you wish would happen but don’t really control. Goals are things you can achieve by making realistic plans that define how and when you will complete them. This usually entails defining dates and intermediate goals (or milestones) targeted at getting one closer to reaching said goal.
“Goals are the bridges that span our dreams.”
This is one of my favorite quotes ever. It really concisely encapsulates what a goal is in relationship to your dreams. Without this perspective you might never see how goals can be used to achieve your dreams.
You won’t likely find someone who sets a goal to watch TV or answer a ringing cell phone. Instead you set goals that are meaningful and help you to attain or reach something of importance. The most motivating goals are the ones that help us reach our dreams … those things that make us or someone else feel amazing or maybe even experience something completely new and interesting.
Setting Goals
One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to someone say that they want to lose weight and yet they do nothing about it. They’re just pissing into that wormhole again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there and hindsight is indeed 20/20. But how can someone expect something like weight loss without putting in any effort?
Instead they should set some goals like losing 15 pounds of weight in 8 weeks by working out 3-4 days per week and eating 5-6 good healthy meals daily. At least then they’d have something to measure their success or failure against and adjust accordingly.
Have you created goals for the next 4 weeks? 12 weeks? 6 months? If so fantastic, if not, why not?
Maybe you need some practice, what if you started out with something small but substantive. How about setting a goal to comment on every fitness blog post you read that hits home or makes you smile? It’s something that will make others feel good, your learning about being healthy & fit, and is easily attainable.
Maybe you envision something larger like setting a goal of running a 5k race in the next 3-6 months. People of all shapes and sizes are able to run races so don’t immediately think no way can I do that. Instead try setting some incremental goals like walking 1 mile @ 3 mph, then bump it to 4 mph, then jogging 1 mile @ 5mph. From there you can bring the distance up and speed back down and move forward in a stair type pattern or you can just increase the distance.
The most important thing to realize is that there is no right an wrong way to set goals, you just have to set them and hold yourself accountable. It’s all about your comfort level with finer or coarser grained goals. Are you comfortable saying you want to lose 10 pounds this month and leave it at that or are you a person who wants to set a week to week goal of 2.5 pounds and adjust from there?
In the end you can’t get it wrong but you have to actually start somewhere. Remember, there is no shame or harm in failing or missing a goal.
“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” — Benjamin Franklin
Are you ready to stop pissing into your wormholes?
