Setting and Reaching Goals

Our attitude plays a major roll in our successes as well as our failures. If you don't think you can do something, the project is doomed before you start. All too often I hear my students say: "I can't do it! It's too hard." They give up before they've even tried. That's laziness, not ability level. I can forgive a student for the attitude, but not an adult.

I have listened to fellow employees grumble as another employee receives accolades or a promotion. They don't attribute it to hard work and effort, but to brown-nosing or having the right connections. There is a little green eyed monster in all of us. Because of it, people have a hard time acknowledging and praising another person's accomplishments. Their success makes us more aware of our own shortcomings.

Part of the problem stems from the inability to set realistic goals and the lack of fortitude to keep at it until we succeed.

Setting Goals is a skill we tend to take for granted. Most people have goals, but they are vague with no real plan in place to achieve them. I have many writer friends that claim they want to write and publish a book, yet they find excuses not to sit down and write. They're too tired after a day of work, or they don't know what to write about. They need to make dinner, or their mother-in-law is coming to visit so cleaning has to take precedence. The just got a new manicure and typing might mess it up. There are a million excuses, some legitimate, others not.

I have had many goals that I have changed, adjusted and tweaked over the years. It's a process. As my knowledge base grows, I have a better understanding of what I need to do to reach a particular goal. My original time frame may have been unrealistic, or priorities have shifted due to personal or family circumstances. Some of my goals are vague and undefined while others are laid out in detail and on a tight schedule. No two people are alike. How I set my goals and plan to achieve them may not work for you. The key is to have the goals and to be working toward them. All it takes is the right attitude.

One of the reasons so many adults have trouble setting goals and sticking to them, is that they never learned how to set goals as a child. Goal setting is one of the most important skills a person can learn. They give us purpose. Children need to be taught how to set goals, make a plan for acheiving them, and encouraged along the way.

Learning how to set goals and achieve them as a child will improve your child's opportunities for success as an adult.

I don't like to admit it, but I'm a long-time smoker. I know it's not healthy and I've tried to quit numerous times.

Nothing worked.

Non-smokers turn up their nose and assume you don't have any willpower. Ex-smokers take on an air of superiority. They succeeded where I've failed. The attitude doesn't help. Smokers end up forming a click of friends, but that makes it even harder to quit. Not only do you give up the cigarettes, you give up your friends as well.

The cost of cigarettes has gone up again. It's the final straw. (Yes, I've said that before.) But I have one thing going for me this time.

I WANT TO QUIT!

The money is one thing, but it's not the only issue. The older I get, the more I feel the affects of smoking. I'm losing my stamina. Age is part of it, but the cigarettes don't help.

Smoking is no longer socially acceptable. I'm turning into a closet smoker and I don't like it. If I'm ashamed of the fact that I smoke.

I've done a lot of reading on the e-cigarette lately. It's not promoted as a stop smoking aid but a lot of people are used it for that. Even if I don't quit, getting my nicotine fix safely does have its appeal.

I ordered the e-cigarette. Unfortunately it didn't work as well as I thought it would. I didn't like the taste. I have since bought the Commit lozenges. They seem to be helping.

As with any goal. I just need to put my mind to it. I really don't have a choice. As of July 1, it will be illegial to smoke on school property. The smoking area is hidden in the back by the dumpsters, but that is not going to matter.

It's time to quit.