How do you relate to your goals?
I’ve noticed that a lot of people are reluctant to set them. It’s easier to just “go with the flow” than to invite the possibility of failure into our lives.
(To be fair, fear of failure isn’t the only thing contributing to that reluctance. Our habits and not knowing what we want can also play a part.)
Speaking for myself, I know that I’ve been hesitant to set goals for fear that I may not achieve them. What would it say about me if I set out what I wanted to accomplish . . . but then didn’t actually do it?
Plus the voice inside my head’s been known to be a bitch. Why would I want to potentially add fuel to her fire?
But I’m beginning to think that avoiding goal setting isn’t the best approach. (In a way, avoiding goals is avoiding . . . life. It’s a way of avoiding taking responsibility for the life we want to live.)
In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if taking the complete opposite approach would be better: What if we set goals that were so big, we knew we wouldn’t be able to achieve them? In other words, what if, at some level, we were trying to fail?
That would change a few things.
It would allow us to set goals without fear of failure, since we’ve already established that it’s ok if we fail.
It would allow us to be intentional about going after what we want (instead of leaving our dreams to chance), while being flexible with the outcome.
It would take the pressure off the expectation of success (since we’re aiming ridiculously high), while still moving us in the right direction.
It would create the opportunity to push ourselves beyond what we think we’re capable of.
If we’re stuck, it would at the very least get us moving in the direction we want to go.
And it’s only when we’re moving towards our goals that success becomes a possibility.