The Goal

I've been thinking about goals lately.  Sometimes when we really want something, regardless of what it is, we make goals to help us get there, and we make small goals, to help us achieve those goals and sometimes we make even smaller goals to help us achieve the small goals.

But what happens if we lose sight of the smaller goals? We don't achieve the small goals.  And if we aren't shooting for the small goals we'll never make our ultimate goal.

We cannot afford to take our eyes off of that goal for even two seconds if we ever want to succeed. If we do take our eyes off of the goal we risk everything, we risk starting from scratch again.

I did that this week.  I lost sight of my true goals, and am back where I started.  It's frustrating sometimes to think that you know what your goals are, and then you get distracted and forget for just a few seconds and the next thing you know, you have to start over again.  It's like if I'm saving up for a new lens (I'm a photographer) and lets say that this lens costs $100 (which is realistic depending on the lens, but we're going to use that number mostly because it's easier to explain).

So my ultimate goal is to get this lens, my small goals consist of watching for sales to get it cheaper, and saving $20 a week.  My smaller goals are to check reliable websites daily for sales, look in the ads that come in the mail/paper weekly, spend less on frivolous things, work extra hours, or do extra chores for my parents or neighbors to earn the money.  Well perhaps one day I find this incredible sale on jeans or books or something and I think to myself hmm... I could really use another pair of jeans, or this book looks really intresting and I REALLY want it, because it will help me better understand the brain which will help me with my psychology paper, and perhaps the next thought that enters my mind is well... I have $50 that I've been saving and I've really cut down on my expenses lately so I can splurge, right? In those small moments, I lost sight of my goal.  Because I lost sight of it, I had to start saving all over again. 

And so I re-iterate, mostly to myself- I CANNOT afford to lose sight of my goals. Not even for a moment.