Do you have goals you want to accomplish?\n<\/p>\n
Do you get excited about getting something done, or reaching a milestone?\n<\/p>\n
I do. I also do something else, and I’m curious if anyone else does this, too.\n<\/p>\n
You’ll set a goal. Maybe you’ve joined some kind of challenge \u2013 to pick something completely<\/em> at random, maybe your gym had a challenge for you to swim 50 miles by the last day of September. (Completely<\/strong> random, I swear<\/strong>). <\/em>Say the challenge starts May 1.\n<\/p>\n Okay, you have five months to complete your goal. You need to swim roughly 10 miles a month, or two and a half miles a week.\n<\/p>\n Are you the type of person who would then decide, “Oh, no! That’s too easy. I’ll swim four<\/strong> miles a week and get done at least six weeks early<\/strong>!”\n<\/p>\n If you are this type of person, I have another question:\n<\/p>\n Have you ever made it too hard on yourself and quit on something because of this foolishness?\n<\/p>\n I caught myself doing it twice today. I’m in the middle of a really busy time. My client has a go-live and a lot more training to be done than usual (meaning there’s a major, major software change that I’m on the floor helping people use), I’m doing that Completely Random 50 mile swim challenge, and I’m taking a programming class.\n<\/p>\n I caught myself doing a couple of things and realizing how I was actually making a few things that are genuine challenges far more difficult obstacles than they needed to be.\n<\/p>\n I was saying I was going to swim four miles a week. Sure, I can<\/em>\u2026 Some weeks, I probably will. The reality? If I get in my ten miles a month now through September, I’ll hit my goal. No biggie. I don’t need to push to do that Every. Single. Week. I will reach my goal without driving myself crazy. So, why drive myself crazy? I’ve done that before and quit.\n<\/p>\n I was also doing some extra credit work on a project for my class.\n<\/p>\n Am I done with the required work on the class?\n<\/p>\n I am not.\n<\/p>\n Do I have plenty of time to complete the required work?\n<\/p>\n Well, yeah, I do. But if I get tied up in the extra, I’m not going to finish the required stuff properly.\n<\/p>\n While excelling is important, something I’m slowly learning as I am getting older is the value of calmly plodding along. The body of work you leave behind and what you accomplish when you don’t <\/em>add unnecessary parameters to what you want to get done is more impressive than the frantic nonsense you can push yourself to do.\n<\/p>\n So, are you adding unnecessary parameters to goals and making it so difficult you quit? I’m curious to see what people are encountering.\n<\/p>\n \n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you have goals you want to accomplish? Do you get excited about getting something done, or reaching a milestone? I do. I also do something else, and I’m curious if anyone else does this, too. You’ll set a goal. Maybe you’ve joined some kind of challenge \u2013 to pick something completely at random, maybe … <\/p>\n