Massive Goals

When you miss a goal

There are times in the real world when you don’t meet your goals.  No matter how hard you try, something comes in the way of your success and you are disappointed.  Perhaps conditions that you predicted, change.  Maybe something higher up in your priorities harms your performance.  Maybe you were just too ambitious when you made your goals. 

The good news in most of these situations, is that for someone who is reaching out way beyond their comfort zone, they will still have made progress.  The very fact that you are over extended, means that you may well be performing at a high level, despite not meeting your goal. 

Here is a little example from my life.  As I have written about previously, I aim to get out of bed to start writing at 5:00 every week day.  This is an excellent time for me and often it is no problem for me to make it.  However when I don’t make it up at 5:00, I find it very easy to get up at 6:00 to go running and before I know it I am out the door.  This hasn’t always been so easy.  On and off throughout my life I have struggled with getting up at 6:00.  Over time, I gradually ease it back to 6:10, or hug the pillow for an extra 20 minutes.  Sometimes it gets to the stage that I miss my workout because I am too late.  When my aim is to get up at 6:00, I don’t always make it.

When my aim is to get up at 5:00, 6:00 seems so easy.  It is like a nice relaxing sleep in and so when I roll out of bed, I feel ready for whatever comes.  6:00 has not changed, it is just that I have changed my attitude, and as long as I aim to get up at 5:00 then my attitude to 6:00 will be luxurious.

This principle can be applied to any area of your life.  Rather than being an excuse for under performance, I see it as a form of compensation for missing a goal.  I half remember a cliche about reaching for the sun and ending up in the stars, but I can’t recollect how it goes.  The point is that if we reach out way past our current level, we can rest assured that even if we don’t meet our goal, then at least we will still record a great performance.  We will still end up ahead of where we would have if we hadn’t been so bold.

So don’t mourn if you miss a goal.  Instead, focus on what you did achieve and then try again.  Nobody meets every goal all of the time.  You are no exception.

Thanks

Tom