Goal Setting

At the start of the year, I wrote about setting New Year resolutions. A couple of months into the year, I can only say that I have not regretted having wrote that. The decision to set goals (and the actions I have taken to achieve them) have certainly made life quite a bit more enjoyable than last year, when I didn’t believe in the power of goal-setting.

Goal setting has given me a new sense of purpose; I use the word sense here for I haven’t quite grapsed the concept of purpose yet — one’s purpose in life! What else could it be but an illusion? I think therefore I am — the moment I stop thinking, the moment self-awareness is gone, I cease to exist. Man creates his own world — to each his own… and so on…

But if asked if I prefered having a sense of purpose compared to none at all, I would (and quite enthusiastically, no doubt) pick having a sense of purpose, illusory or otherwise. It simply feels good.

The day I decided

On hindsight, I find it strange that I had a transition from manic depressive to mild optimist. Working on the base of mild-optimism, I got myself a self-help book (a genre I have shunned for the last couple of years), and have worked my way up since then.

In a way, life is very much like the stock-market. It goes up, down and laterally. Every once in a while, it corrects itself, causing bearish-times (downards) to become bullish (upwards) and vice-versa. Lateral movements (neither upwards nor downwards) are also common, as we go through a stable period without much activity. If this anology holds true, no matter what happens, life generally moves up (even after the great depression and stock market crashes, stocks have had one of the greatest, if not the greatest, return of investment).

Whatever cause this correction, I have no idea. But I am thankful that it has happened at this time, when I am still young. By the way, I’m staying on in SISPEC, for ASLC. I didn’t expect (nor wished) to stay, but I have — yet somehow, I don’t feel too bad about it, for I know I can still achieve my goals here. Without goals, I would be crying right now.

Set goals if you haven’t already. Try this site, called Goal Setting School for some tips. Don’t bother about their “advanced” goal setting (for which you would have to pay); their “basic” ones are more than enough.

A tip I have for those wishing to set goals would be to create collages of your favourite things, or of the goals you’d like to achieve. Pictures are one of the most powerful leverages one can use in goal-setting. For example, if you’re hoping to lose some weight or get back in shape, past your head on a picture your desired body, and look at the picture first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and anytime in between. Your mind will soon convert that thought (if you desire it strongly enough) into reality!