If you cannot fail, you cannot succeed. Both of these require the same thing. A way to judge your actions. Without a consistent way to do this, everything is just lumped together. None of your actions are better or worse than any others. But this is not true. Everyone has things that they want, and things they are striving for. And we judge our actions accordingly.
Most commonly, we place them against idealized versions of ourselves. I fall into this trap often. I criticize myself for every failing, however small. All of my hard work and success? Well that’s expected. But ideal me wouldn’t struggle with it, so why am I?
Sometimes we sometimes use goals.
What is a Goal?
A goal is not a destination. It does not represent the end of a journey. It’s more like a waypoint. A marker to acknowledge your efforts. Meant to be appreciated, not lived at. So don’t shy away from small goals. They will help you get started. And that’s an incredibly valuable thing.
A goal is not a map. It does not tell you how to achieve the things that you want. Although plans are valuable, goals should not contain that level of detail. Plans change to reflect new situations and methods. Goals should be more stable.
A goal is not motivation. Setting a goal does not make you want to do something. Try setting a goal for someone else if you want to test this. And yet, you need to understand exactly why you want to accomplish your goal. Your goal needs to have purpose.
A goal is direction. Or more accurately, it crystallizes all of your existing direction and motivation into a concise expression of intent.
Why is this important?
Goals are a means of communicating with your future self. They remind you of what you want to do and why. And you will need reminders, because goals require action. And they tend to need a lot of it. To take action, you need to remember your reasons for taking action.
Intentions are best conveyed through words. Properly stated, a goal can invoke all of the feelings behind it.