Goals! I have one, now what?

Goals – I have one, now what?


Reaching a goal is an up hill battle, make no mistake. Forward, is the mantra.
It’s not all bad, there is light and help along the way.


The number one reason most goals are never reached is that people give up on them just before they reach them. Sound crazy I know, but it’s the truth. Think about the race to a goal as an uphill race with the last 20 feet the steepest. It’s that last 20 feet that defeat most of us.

Athletes know about this because they deal with it all the time. Watch long distance runners who find energy reserves when their lungs and muscles are screaming to stop, and burst forward to win. That’s the same kind of reserve you need to tap for the last bit of the race to the goal.

Reaching your goal starts out slow and steady. But, as you progress, the effort increases and fatigue increases. The obstacles will seem larger and more frequent. Don’t give up! Forward, as long as you are moving forward, you are on the path to success. When you are ready to give up, don’t, move one step forward. The more discouraging and the more obstacles you encounter, the closer you are to the finish line – keep going.

I am dyslectic and I wanted to graduate from college. I learned to read at 17, you guessed it the schools just passed me along after giving up. I did graduate from high school with the admonition from the guidance counselor that I didn’t deserve it but they were just glad to get rid of me. The goal, for me, was to graduate college and I had a lot of work to do. Now that I could read, I did. I re-educated myself and 20 years after I graduated from high school, I graduated from college on the honor roll with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

It’s not all hard work and exhaustion. Once a goal is set and you put it as your number one priority something else happens. You will be more aware of events around you that will help you reach your goal. In some ways it’s like the heavens are trying to help you. This is amazing. I’ll give you an example. Living in a very small town of 399 souls in the 90’s with teenage children made concerts and current rock star concerts a distant possibility. MTV was on, and my children glued to it. I talk a lot about goals and goal setting so my son gave me a challenge to get back stage passes to a rock concert and meet the band. Ok, we set it as a goal. In the college town 30 miles away the band with the number 1 song on the radio was going to give a concert. I got tickets. I did some research on the band and found they liked a product made in the area and would most likely tour the factory. I called the factory and sure enough, the tour was scheduled, I offered to take pictures and the deal was set. Goal reached. It took almost 6 months for circumstances to align and lots of near misses, but keeping the goal in mind and taking a step forward every day ensured success.