“Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you’re in a fight.”—Michael Jordan
Setting goals is about knowing what you want. Specifically, it is about knowing what you need. Most importantly, goal setting is about acknowledging our imperfections.
Even when we are our best, we can get better. Moreover, we must get better. We set goals for the purpose of advancing.
In teaching my son about setting goals, we had to acknowledge that he is going to fail—if, of course, he tries. We talked about how this is okay. Indeed, it is necessary. The question I am teaching him to ask (and trying to practice myself) is: “Did I do my best?” Hopefully, the answer is “yes”, but we know that often it will be “no”. If “no”, then we must ask “why not?” When the answer is “yes”, we still have to ask “what can I do to be better tomorrow?” Even in success (or victory), we can look for ways to improve.
When we do fall short, we must not beat ourselves up. The worst thing we can do is let failure metastasize. Instead, we need to let failure fuel our future success. We can use our mistakes and losses to expose our weaknesses and train these up. Sadly. We too often focus on what we didn’t do instead of focusing on what we can do.
Today is a new day. Whatever you are beating yourself up over from yesterday, forget about it. Set a challenge for yourself to get better today.
Make goal setting a part of your daily growth routine. Be specific. Challenge yourself. Risk failing until you get it right, then fail at something new. Growth doesn’t come from doing what we do well. Growth comes from struggling to do, today, what we couldn’t do yesterday, so we are better tomorrow. One’s 100%, today, might only be 99.8% tomorrow, but that is progress.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!