Author: Alex Patananan
Like most people, we make New Year’s resolutions in an attempt to motivate ourselves to achieve hard to obtain goals, whether they be to get straight A’s in school, lose weight, save more money, or get a new job. Attainable resolutions and goals are great things to make because they provide us with a target to aim our talents and skills. However, less than 10% of resolutions are actually fulfilled, with the majority of people failing within the first month. How can we ensure that we set reasonable goals for the New Year, and in fact for any time in our lives, that can improve us?
To study this question, I would like to bring up a personal story. For the past couple of years, I have set a goal to run marathons. In particular, I have a specific time I would like to cover the 26.2 mile distance. For my most recent marathon, I was on pace to achieve this time for 20 miles. Now, you may be saying “if he can cover 20 miles at that pace, he should be fine in finishing the last few miles also on that pace, right?” You would actually be wrong, as in the world of running there is something called “hitting The Wall,” which although I have never actually hit a wall before, can now provide some insight into what it is like. For you see, at mile 20, I hit The Wall so suddenly and without warning that it felt like I was instantaneously transformed from running forwards like a human being to running backwards slower than a snail for the last 6 miles. I was going so slow the last couple miles that I was passed by a Ralph’s trash bag blowing down the street. Now it would be easy to get disappointed, because clearly due to The Wall I would no longer be able to achieve my goal time, which I spent a year training to achieve. In fact, it would be easy to give up running marathons all together because once you have had an altercation with The Wall, you will never forget that experience. However, the important thing about setting a goal to accomplish anything worthwhile is to realize that failure and disappointment will always be present. What we do in face of these challenges will dictate whether we improve and become better people, or whether we succumb and become stagnant. Goals should not be one single target, but should be a series of steps leading to an ultimate goal. Although for my marathon the goal time was out of the question after mile 20, I had a secondary and tertiary time in mind that I would be happy with - obviously not as happy as my primary target, but something that would be satisfactory and provide a foundation for further development. I have given an example involving sport, where injury, illness, unforeseen circumstances, or plain just having a bad day can influence a result. But, this philosophy applies everywhere from school to work to life.
As you march on towards 2020, create goals that will make this year a truly great year. Great years are never perfect - disappointment and discouragement will undoubtedly arise. Great years are made by overcoming obstacles and challenges and striving to piece-by-piece achieve attainable goals. May 2020 be a wonderful time for you at JYI and a peaceful and prosperous time in your lives!