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For the last two and a half weeks, I’ve had basically no access to either my Macbook Pro or the interwebs, which meant that the only way I could collect some of my thoughts & ideas was with old-school pen & paper. Fortunately though, my new fetish is my Field Notes notebooks, which meant that I actually did quite a bit of writing during my time offline.
The one thing that I spent quite a bit of time on, was the goals that I wanted to achieve and the ideas that I wanted to pursue this year. But instead of just jotting down a list of things to do in 2010, I spent a little more time to figure out my reasoning behind all of those goals. This meant identifying the spheres of my life where I needed to set goals, and more importantly – why I needed or wanted to set myself those goals.
After spending a few hours figuring out the “why’s”, then jotting down some goals and then working back again to delve into the “why’s”; I realized that there was an ever-present hint of idealism within my writing & thought processes. This was evident within the slight vagueness of my goals (in the past I’d set easily measurable goals to “track my progress” instead), and perhaps also the seemingly supernatural powers it would take to achieve some of those.
This prompted me to write the following bit on goal-setting & idealism:
“I have realized that life & its ambitions are less about attainable & measurable goals; and more about challenging yourself within an idealistic setting. The difference in these are that you may never achieve the latter, but you should find yourself smiling along that way. Also consider that self-fullfillment is an ideal in its own right and that there are no measures of ’success’ in this regard.”
Sound a bit airy-fairy? Maybe… But consider the implications…
If you’re just gonna set goals that you know you can achieve, then you’re not really pushing yourself to expand your thoughts, ideas & ambitions into new areas. So for me, it would be easy to set goals for WooThemes, since I have a 2 year history on which I can base growth, budgets and possible new targets. But to an extend, that would be limiting. And I’ve found with myself in the past, that the only reason I didn’t achieve these “easy” goals would be a lack of time invested in pursuing them (read: they were still relatively easy to achieve).
So this year, I’m challenging myself to be a little bit different. Yes – I still have a few of those “easily attainable” & measurable goals, but a big bulk of them a focused on being uniquely idealistic. Ultimately this means…
IF I manage to knock down most of the goals and pursue the new ideas amongst those, 2010 will be an amazing year. And if I don’t? Well, let’s just say that I’m already smiling about the journey ahead.
Great thought Adii! I agree with you. We always need to be constantly pushing ourselves to the limit.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
While we may not hit our lofty goals, we will definitely be a lot better off rather than if we had just set an normal, easily achievable goal. I personally have already set some really high goals for myself in the new year.
Oh, and by the way, I’m really loving those FieldNotes as well. I won them in a contest and they have been extremely useful for writing down my ideas daily.
Awesome quote that; thanks for sharing!
Great insight! I’ve always lacked the time last year. May be I must now set the goal to a much higher point which is idealistic and yet I could enjoy the journey in the end. Thanks for letting me know.
I really like your thinking here, Adii.
I often feel when setting goals that being slightly idealistic is a better way to go. You’re on the same path, but if your goal is idealistic then surely you’re going to be at least as successful as if you’d set a
Your comment seems to be cut off!? New gravatar looks sweet though!
Brilliant post thanks Adii, I’m about to go away for a week to plan this year and set some (now “uniquely idealistic”) goals, just what I needed to read at just the right time!
Good luck with that; I must say that my two and a half weeks away from everything was definitely much-needed and I feel so excited & revitalized about the year ahead.
I’m doing the same thing for 2010. My goals aren’t entirely unrealistic (at least to me) but still far above anything I’ve ever achieved. I figure that if I even reach 25% of the way I’ll be happy, and that I have all of 2011 after that to go for another 175%.
Hehe, I like the thinking behind the 175%. But I’ll try knock off a little more than 25% off my list this year, as 175% seems slightly *too* idealistic for 2011…
Setting your own personal goals is fine but if you are in a business, especially a very small business (even a partnership) then you have to get you business partner to join in the process and then both commit and stick to the goals.
Much harder than just doing this yourself (which is hard anyway).
Thanks for the post and the insight Greatly appreciated.
Taking a couple of weeks away from your normal technology is an amazing way to really zone in on what really matters in your personal and business life. I think a bit of idealism is the ticket to really move you to new heights. If we do not move the high jump bar up, who will? I agree we may not always really all that we want but we certainly head in the right direction. I have used a Moleskine to write my thoughts and inspirations over the past year and I have to say it make a great accountability to yourself when you reach for it every morning and look at what you have set for yourself. I have set some big goals for myself for 2010 and I am stoked to see it all unfold. Best wishes for you for 2010 Adii!
Well, what can I say… I’m challenging myself all my life. And I’m just 23. Some people say I push too hard. Even my clients… hehe… But what a life it would be if there is no fight, no falling and no rising up!
Smile to yourself every time you fall – cause it means that soon you will stand up and hopefully end up even higher than before.