Glorious Goals and the Awful Ways To Them

Reaching a goal is awesome.  Working toward a goal sucks.

 

Why the heck do we make decisions that put us in uncomfortable, boring, stressful, and just dumb situations?  *raises hand eagerly* Ooh, ooh! I know!  It’s not because we are stupid creatures that don’t know what’s right for us.  On the contrary, we are intelligent beings who are working toward a … say it with me … GOAL!  A goal is to make one’s life better one day, at the cost of sacrificing everything good and beautiful in the interim. *Dramatically puts hand to forehead in a woe-is-me stance*

 

At risk of sounding like that high school kid who can’t stop living in my nerdy past, allow me to explain my first real memory of working toward a big goal.  The year was 2003 (I think). Oh, how little chubby 16-year-old Caitlin wanted to be in wind symphony!  Most of my band friends had auditioned and got in the year before, but dear little C and her saxophone were too afraid to try (or maybe I did try and didn’t get in. If so, my brain has blocked any recollection for self-healing reasons.  P.S. I see I can’t remember relevant parts of this “important” memory.  Moving on).  For some reason, I would get so nervous performing alone and it showed.  Blah blah, long story short, I decided to try out the next year and I practiced until my bottom lip was practically falling off AND I GOT IN!  This memory sticks with me because it was the first time in my life that I remembered working hard for something and actually getting it.  This memory coincides with one of the Harry Potter movies when the camera pans up on Hogwarts at night time.  Not sure why.  It’s not like it had ANYTHING to do with that.  Maybe I went home and watched Harry Potter to celebrate.  OR MAYBE I was taking movie situations and comparing them to my life…you know, like, Harry Potter (aka Caitlin) doesn’t fit in in regular Muggle (symphony) classes, Harry Potter (Caitlin) gets invited to an exclusive group that you have to be talented enough to get into (Hogwarts/Wind Symphony)…?  Yup.  I just compared my band days to Harry Potter.  Deal with it.

I promise I will bring fresher, more current stories in future posts... starting... next time.

 

All that practicing sucked.  A lot.  But the payoff was great.  It made me feel that if I worked hard, I would get everything I ever wanted.

 

College brought with it the typical goals: high GPA, becoming president of a campus organization, getting a good boyfriend.  Check, check, check.

 

So we graduate from college and we are prepared for the real world, right?  I mean we’ve paid our dues and worked hard to get where we are, right?  I like to compare it to walking out from your wedding ceremony, thinking this elation is what life is going to be and then getting hit by a bus.  A bus called… reality.  Boom.  You’re welcome for my amazing prowess with metaphors.

 

Turns out the big, bad world is not going to softly embrace your goals and create cloud stairs to get to them.  Even if you do everything by-the-book right, there are factors we cannot control that will create overwhelming obstacles.  This is the time that you get creative about how you will get around those obstacles.  As Greg says, “work smart, not hard.”

I’m certainly not saying not to pursue your goals, I’m not the Dreamcrusher.  I’m just saying, when it seems impossible to get there, think creatively to get around your problem and back on track.

 

Let’s conclude this post with some of my goals, to be attained at some point in my life:

 

Write a novel and get it published

 

Have healthy children and raise them well

 

Live in a house with a huge backyard, like, I’ll be back in an hour because I’m walking around my backyard.

 

Earn a highly respected job at a large organization where I can make a considerable difference

 

Learn to take it easy and enjoy the present instead of always planning for the future. I KNOW that’s an oxymoron…to make a goal to not make so many goals and to live in the present. LET ME HAVE THIS!

 

I’m very aware that most of these things will be difficult and strenuous, but they are what I want out of life and I’m willing to work for them.