With the New Year just newly begun, I have been hearing a lot about goals. Goals to travel, to lose weight, to develop new habits, to break old habits. In all this, there is the looming threat of failing to meet these New Year’s Resolutions and a warning to be sure to set attainable goals.
While I believe it is good to set attainable goals, I also think that we will only reach as far as our goals are set, so why not set a lofty one? Even if you fail, at least you’ve made some sort of progress in the right direction.
Set a goal to exercise everyday? I bet you exercised more than you would have without this goal. Maybe not everyday, but more days.
Set a goal to break an old habit? I bet you thought about it more than if you hadn’t made that goal.
I think it is better to set goals and reach out for them, than to set an attainable goal and only ever make it as far as you were able to at the time. An attainable goal just means that you knew you could reach it before you started. That’s not reaching past your comfort zone to achieve more than you ever thought possible.
Not that I believe everyone should immediately set lofty goals and then expect to fail. That’s not what I’m saying at all. My desire would be to see people reach past what they are able and dream of something bigger, but then set attainable goals to build up to that lofty height that they dream of.
So, it’s time to buy what I’m selling. Time to put my money where my mouth is. Here is my lofty, currently unattainable goal:
100,000 monthly page views!
Where I’m currently at: 3,000 page views per month.
So there you have it! I’ve set a goal that I may not reach this year or the next, but I’m going to get the page views to 4,000, then 5,000, and on and on until I’ve met my goal. I’m reaching for the stars and catching some stardust along the way. It is better to have the goal and reach out for it, then to keep grabbing what is right in front of you.
I encourage you to dream big, take the reins in life, and see how far you can go. What’s your goal for the next year, the next two years, or your lifetime? What are you reaching for?