Goals

So, I wasn't in lecture last week, but I heard they talked about the importance of goals.

Whenever I think about goals, I automatically think about my swim team back in high school and my swim coach there. Mr. Olson, my high school swim coach, is a very goal orientated guy. At the first practice we would always swim for 10 minutes at whatever pace we wanted with the instruction to think about the goals we'd achieved in past years and the goals we wanted to achieve in the new year. I always enjoyed this because it seemed to start me off on the right foot. I would figure out where I was at that time, and would determine where I would be by the end of the season.

After formulating my goals Mr. Olson would have us write them down and turn them into him. This solidified what I had put my mind to do and I received the moral support and direction from my coach to help me get there.

Even though at the beginning of the season the goals I had set up for myself seemed near impossible and would only come from a perfect season, I always achieved them! There was just something about having an idea of where I wanted to be that would drive me during practices and urged me to work harder and harder. Achieving those goals was always the best feeling in the world, knowing that I had worked really hard and had achieved something that I had once thought would be nearly impossible.

Having learned this, I imagine the same goal setting strategies that I used in swimming are the same strategies I should use in setting goals for myself throughout life. I need to know where I am and where I want to go in order to help me achieve the impossible. I think that it's also important to have big visionary goals, but inside of those goals, smaller ones that help you feel like your on the right track when you accomplish them and help you reach your big goals.

My leadership role doesn't seem to be one that is too goal oriented, but in my leadership roles in the future, in church, on my mission, in other leadership positions in my future, I know its important to always start off with a goal. What do I want to do? and then have little goals, How do I get there? and go from there!

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!