Are you hitting your goals for this year? Here we are in the second quarter of 2015 already. I just did a review of my goals and am reminded how far behind I am in some areas I thought were important. I wanted to have the new workbook to accompany the 10th Anniversary Edition of 48 Days to the Work You Love ready by January 1st – and I’m just now finalizing it. I wanted to have dropped 15 lbs but I’ve bounced up and down with cruises and lots of airline travel. Just excuses, I know.
But here’s the question: Did I “fail” in that area? I don’t consider that failure since I’m a whole lot closer than I was on January 1st.
“Set your goals ridiculously high and you will fail above everyone else’s success.” – James Cameron, Academy Award-Winning Director
I love the thought here. If you decide you are going to run three marathons this year – and you fail by only running two, you have still accomplished more than 99% of the people in the world.
- What if you had a goal of writing two books this year but only completed one?
- What if you wanted to reduce your cholesterol by 50 points but only cut it down by 40?
- What if you wanted to compose a new song a month but finished the year with only 10 great songs?
- What if you set as a goal to increase your income from $50,000 to $100,000 but only hit $85,000 by December 31st?
- What if you wanted to pay cash for a $15,00 car by November 15th but you accumulated only $14,000 by that date?
- What if you wanted the greatest marriage in the world but you only eliminated 80% of the painful points in the marriage you have now?
Do you have a goal that is so “ridiculously high” that even if you only hit 50% of it you will still bypass everyone else?
Failure comes not in setting a goal and not hitting it – it is in not setting a goal at all and being stuck in sameness.
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing .” — George Bernard Shaw
Where are you behind where you thought you’d be at this time?
Love the encouragement and awesome perspective here, Dan. Thank you. My goal was blog regularly. Got off track but have been consistent throughout April… Progress. Yay!
Failure helps me to become successful. Failure teaches me how to win. Failure is my guide to navigate through my attempts to find my true path. I must be willing to be led by failure to find my way to success.
I wanted to loose 26 pounds by July 1. I’m half way there but 3 pounds short of where I thought I should be by now. I’ve been sick a lot this month and have had limited workouts because of this. I’m looking forward to getting back at it. None the less I’m still 13 pounds better than if I’d done nothing. In addition I feel I’ve changed enough habits eating that I’ll be able to continue long past July. Behind my goal, but glad I started.
Chris – wow, that’s great. You’re so right, getting started brings it’s own rewards. Hey you’ve still got almost 9 weeks till July 1st. That’s only 1.5 lbs a week – I’m confident you can do it!
This is a great perspective, Dan! I wanted to practice the piano for 1,000 hours this year, and I’ve “only” done 91 hours so far, which means I’m 242 hours behind where I should be. But, my technique has gotten so much better and even got a great paid opportunity to serve as a music director for 2 months! Wonder what will happen when I hit 200… 🙂
Rodney,
Yeah if only 91 hours opened the door to a music director position it will be awesome to see what the full 1,000 hours will do. Keep me posted!