The Goal Setting Myth

Do you have goals?

I love setting goals. Even the concept of goal setting fascinates me. My very first self help book was Brian Tracy’s “Goals”. I literally ate that book.

Setting goals is necessary for everyone. What I have a problem with is when people tell me to determine the pathway to those goals and not let anything distract me from following that path.

Usually my first question to such statements is, “how do you know that’s the right path?” I’ve set many goals in this life, and I have achieved many goals too. But you see that path…almost everytime it goes in a manner I can’t explain.

We like to set linear paths to our goals. What then happens is that life decides to turn that straight line into a scribble. And then we react by forcing it to be straight.

I’ve come to love and appreciate the scribble because I’ve realised that the lessons learned and capacity developed when it’s a scribble outweighs what I imagined I would learn if the path was as straight as I wanted it.

This doesn’t mean that some people don’t have straight paths. They can, but when you look deeply at such paths, you’ll still see some form of adventure that took them off that “straight road” for a little while.

I see the scribble as God’s way of preparing us for the goals ahead. To Him, it’s a linear path and He empowers us with what we need so that when we eventually hit that goal, we can sustain it and grow past it. See Proverbs 19:21.

The scribble is an adventure. Live it. Love it.