Goals and Challenges
Friday, June 29, 2007 at 10:11AM The other day I was talking to a good friend about goals. Last year she wanted to run in a marathon. She set that goal, and worked her way to success. She didn't start by going out and running for miles, she started walking and then conditioned herself to the point where she finished that marathon. I am so proud of her!
I don't think of myself as a 'goal oriented' person. I've always seen setting goals as more of a challenge, and I'm not much for challenges. I blame it on my non-competitive nature. Go ahead, challenge me to see who can do more push-ups, or whose house is cleaner...I will gladly hand the title to you, uncontested.
During our conversation I was saying how I think it's a weakness in me that I don't set specific goals and try to obtain them. She encouraged me by telling me she thinks I do set goals, I just don't label them as goals. She then went on to tell me how she sees certain things I do with my kids as goals I've set that I just enforce on a daily basis. I never thought of it like that. For instance, dressing modestly is a big deal in our home. We don't allow the girls to wear anything that is too tight, or would show their stomachs. We have a great resource hanging on our fridge that has some 'tests' to do before you leave the house to see whether you pass the modestly-dressed test (you can find this at Secret Keeper). It's made me think about the things I do every day, that I just do without much thought, that will eventually take me to a place I want to be. I guess that is the definition of a 'goal'.
How do you define 'goals', and how do you work toward them?
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Reader Comments (1)
Sounds like you have a wonderful and wise friend :-)
One of the most valuable lessons I've learned in the past year is not to despise the small things..... BIG goals really can be accomplished little, by little, by little. I am much more patient than I used to be, and doing a "little bit" on a consistent basis is way more profitable than I ever realized. I heard a homeschool mom of 9 kids say she sewed about 6 articles of clothing in one year by sewing for 20 minutes a day. She loves to sew and refuses to give it up eventhough she only has small increments of time to work with. That really inspired me and kind of kills the excuse, "I don't have time!"