If you've been here for longer than a month you might have learned that I am big on setting goals. If you've been here a few years you might think my blog is synonymous with setting goals. If you're new here (hi!) these are a few long-term goals that I've talked about at length : mileaday, make29, the daily card, the 26 projects, the 40 loaves.
I recently had to update my bio for a few different things and the first line of my new "about me" reads :
Elise Blaha Cripe is a blogger, crafter and goal setter in San Diego, California.
Yep. Goals are my "thing." But something I don't think I have every really explored (here on the blog or even in my head) is why I set goals. What's the point? Why do I love it? I am going to attempt to answer this today.
I set goals so I have something outside the day-to-day to focus on. No matter how glamorous your life, you still have a "daily grind." You get up, make coffee, get dressed, check email, eat, work, eat, work, eat, watch tv, read, sleep. That's it. (Plus or minus a few kiddos and/or pets to care for.) There is nothing wrong with the daily grind. I am incredibly grateful that my days are mundane because for me it means my family is functioning and whole. However, if I only had an endless stretch of the same day ahead of me, I'd get a little antsy. So I set big goals to give me a little something extra to work on and move towards outside the normal routine.
I set goals to keep the focus internal and not external. The Internet has made it so not only can we see our own feedback in real time, we can see the feedback that others are getting as well. It's way too easy to compare how we are perceived to how others are received. "Look how many followers she has!" "I can't believe how many retweets he got!" "Look at the likes on that photo!" "Wow, he got 100 comments on that post!" It's much harder to do the competitive comparison with specific, personal goals. I can't look at some random person on Instagram and think "Wow, their MAKE29 project is so much more successful than mine." because no one else HAS a MAKE29 project (and if they did we could never compare 1 to 1 because it would be so different). Setting unique and special-to-me goals help me focus more on myself and what I am doing vs. Successful Internet Stranger and what she is doing.
I set goals because I want to learn and grow. Like nearly everyone, I love to learn new things. The best way that I have found to learn something new is to get uncomfortable and step outside my comfort zone. Once outside of my "zone" there only two options : fail or succeed. Either way I learn something. Either way I "grow" because I gain experience that helps me relate to others and/or tackle something else.
Yep. Those are my reasons. Pretty simple (and obvious) when I write them out. I love to pick goals that are hard enough to stretch my strengths and improve my weaknesses, but are not so impossible that I am discouraged at the start. A good goal is motivating throughout, even when it's hard. Perhaps especially when it's hard. A good goal will inspire you and be relevant to you. A good goal will challenge you and force you to grow. I am not interested in trying for myself 95% of the random goals that people set, but I am incredibly interested in the fact that they set them and the tools they used and skills they developed to reach them. People are fascinating. Goals are inspiring. People are inspiring. Goals are fascinating.
PS : here's a related post from summer 2012 with thoughts on monthly goal setting.
Today on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I am chatting with Chris Guillebeau about creative quests and his new book, The Happiness of Pursuit. Click here to subscribe or stream the episode from your computer here.
Since writing this post, I created Get To Work Book! It's a day planner + goal setting workbook that is designed to help you take your big goals turn them into something real. Learn more and shop the brand here.
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