Week 3 - Post 1 [Goalsetting]

This will be an interesting week.  I have a problem with Goalsetting.  I used to set goals, but somewhere along the line I became gunshy of setting goals.  When I was in high school and college I set goals all the time...and was fairly successful in reaching my goals.  I was an athlete in high school (basketball, football, track, martial arts), active in choir and band, and was a high achiever academically.  All these activities involved setting goals, practicing to improve, and having my performance judged and/or evaluated.  After high school, I got into bodybuilding and general weight lifting (no goals there), and continued martial arts training.

As I progressed through my college years, things changed.  I stopped achieving as easily as I previously had.  I got involved in a network marketing business that taught goalsetting as an integral part of success.  After some early success, results started coming more slowly.  Academic success became more elusive as well - 4 different majors before I finally graduated with a nearly worthless degree in Community and Corporate Fitness after 5 years.  I got married shortly after college and my wife and I have been struggling to "make it" ever since.  We continued working (and not working) our network marketing business for another 12 years or so and never did achieve the levels of success that we had dreamed of.

And there's even more to this little psycho-drama, but after years of what I saw as dramatic failure, never quite measuring up to the standards that I had set for myself, I got to the point where I really quit setting goals.  Why set any kind of standard that I could commit to, and then fail at?  Something in my brain told me that it would be easier on everyone if I just quit committing to things.  How could I disappoint my wife and kids if I never told them that I was going to really do something...I'd had enough of that.

Thing is, it's really true that the only failure is the guy that quits trying and just gives up.  What kind of a man chickens out and gives up?  Not really gives up, but just won't commit to anything anymore.

So, time to make some goals.  This week is going to be quite a change, and very scary, too.  I'll have to share my goals with my family and hold myself accountable to them to do what it takes to accomplish those goals.  More thoughts on the dynamics of goalsetting as the week progresses! :-)