After posting about my recent goal achievement on weight loss, it came to me that the things I learned can be applied to other challenges. In a nutshell, what I learned was to:
- Set a reasonable goal and define it whether its time, depth, financial
- Take measured steps toward the goal but sometimes the steps are lateral and not forward
- Keep track of progress in some fashion
- Learn patience
- Tackle adversity
- Assume control of the variables
- There may be success…
It seems to me that we all want to achieve a thing or things. it may not be to lose 85 pounds or so. It may be around work or education or changes. Hell, it may be to become something completely different. I’ve had the thought more than a few times of what ties me to a certain path or thing. Many of the things I’ve let go had value in and of themselves but there were out of control spirals. See the second to last variable? You have to have control or the goal is not really yours. The out of control spirals tend to leave you vulnerable and you can feel the wrath of the dragons that lurk. I’ve watched others with the same thing. Otherwise they would be powerful doers but instead they are simpering almost doers. Its difficult to tackle adversity also but it always comes and when it does it may be like opportunity. Difference being that opportunity may only knock once and it may be disguised as adversity. Adversity may knock a lot more and make demands.
I’ve watched the techno-scene here in the Bay area for some years and watched the people come and go. I watched myself leave anthropology behind for a few reasons but out of control spirals rank high up there in its trajectory. I’ve watched others that perhaps don’t deserve what they get still get.
My take is that this whole blogging thing, the social and technological institutions is also an out of control downward spiral. Top hundreds and bottom comet denizens really don’t mesh. The goals around blogging may start out to be to mesh with an existing wider network; but lets face it. The real goals are selfish and include building your own history divided into days, weeks, months. Then we arrange it all in some fabricated order to make it make sense. Then we want others to link to those things and grant us authority. Then new institutions arise and make the blogging thing seem even more significant. In truth, its only important if you think it is. I wonder what the comparison is between number of new blogs and number of blogs left stagnant for over 30 days.
Anyways, we choose the goals and the values and mores and choose which match and what we do. We like to remain in charge and assertive and moving in the correct direction. Ask yourself what you do on a daily basis. Is the job the thing you want or is it just the passing requirement of life in the Bay area. Does technology consulting suit your needs or do you make due with it? I have my own take on it. At Visa, I am just far enough away from some of it to enjoy it. I get to do business, risk, consultative affairs, vendor relationship management. And then some IT. Its a good mix.
I have my goals and some face forwards and some backwards. I think as we get older, we set a goal to look backwards at the things we’ve done, see if they were valued or not, and pronounce a sentence on them. It comes with the territory of the 50′s.
Try looking at the goals you say are yours. Do you blog? Why? Is it a goal or just a path? What else is in your expressive nature?
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