Do you remember when you were a teenager and you had these lovely, lofty, half-crazy ambitions about what you wanted to do with your life?
Did you watch the dull sheen in the eyes of the adults around you and wonder how they could just settle for the inane, the mundane, the mediocre? Did you wonder how grownups lost their passion and zeal? Did you wonder why they stopped pursuing the creative outlets they had when they were young, like writing or painting or restoring old cars?
Did you vow that you would never let that happen to you? Did you fear with every cell in your being that you might one day unknowingly trade your gleam for a lackluster existence? Or did you assuage your fears by convincing yourself that your parents and adult acquaintances were aliens, had nothing in common with you, and that is why they sold out and gave up? But you, you were different. You were never going to forget the angst-fueled furor that propelled you to dream big.
Some of you know how I feel about New Years’ Resolutions. But setting personal goals can be a useful venture and can be a staple for achieving growth if you’re into that sort of thing.
If you want to get existential about it, you can ask yourself a series of questions. If you only had one month to live (good health, unlimited finances), what would you do? How would you spend your time if you had one year to live? Five years? What is holding you back from pursuing those goals now? How do you know you don’t just have one year to live?
Blogging about your goals can provide some accountability. The two people who follow your blog can harass you if you do not pursue your aspirations.
Did you watch the dull sheen in the eyes of the adults around you and wonder how they could just settle for the inane, the mundane, the mediocre? Did you wonder how grownups lost their passion and zeal? Did you wonder why they stopped pursuing the creative outlets they had when they were young, like writing or painting or restoring old cars?
Did you vow that you would never let that happen to you? Did you fear with every cell in your being that you might one day unknowingly trade your gleam for a lackluster existence? Or did you assuage your fears by convincing yourself that your parents and adult acquaintances were aliens, had nothing in common with you, and that is why they sold out and gave up? But you, you were different. You were never going to forget the angst-fueled furor that propelled you to dream big.
Some of you know how I feel about New Years’ Resolutions. But setting personal goals can be a useful venture and can be a staple for achieving growth if you’re into that sort of thing.
If you want to get existential about it, you can ask yourself a series of questions. If you only had one month to live (good health, unlimited finances), what would you do? How would you spend your time if you had one year to live? Five years? What is holding you back from pursuing those goals now? How do you know you don’t just have one year to live?
Blogging about your goals can provide some accountability. The two people who follow your blog can harass you if you do not pursue your aspirations.
- I will learn to skateboard. This means I have to overcome my fear of looking like a tool because I am wearing knee and elbow pads like a second grader whose mom is overprotective and no doubt causing separation issues. I also risk being featured on Scarred or some crappy “reality” show on MTV, whereby I would lose all credibility among my peers.
- I will write a book. I love ideas, theories, and memoirs, but I am not gifted in the area of taking the time and effort to make them into an actual Word document. I fear writers block, not having much to say, and producing something uninspired and dull. I will have to put these fears aside. I think I have to have the book written in my head in its entirety so that when it comes out on my screen, it will be perfectly written (witty, correct grammar, stimulating). I am afraid the publisher will put an ugly cover on it (and you know how people judge a book).
- I will further my education. I need to convince the US Department of Education to loan me $100,000 to pursue a Ph.D. in some esoteric field that will be utterly useless as far as advancing productive society but that will be infinitely fascinating to me, like philosophy, psychology, or theology.
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