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For an entrepreneur, learning to meet everyday goals is not just beneficial, it’s crucial. But when I think about goals in the broader sense, those mere milestones have nothing on the bigger picture of achieving my dreams.
We’re all reluctant to answer the question, “Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?” But we all have a vision of how we’d like our lives to play out. I’m looking forward to a beach house in Cabo, kicking it under a palapa and sipping on mojitos to my heart’s content. But let’s get real–fantasizing about our future success isn’t enough to get us there. As much fun as it is to imagine what our lives could be, it’s much more fun to live in the now, where life is actually happening.
During the past 24 years of my life I’ve had some big dreams for myself. From rocking out on stage as a lead musician to taking a role in my own T.V. show, I thought I could do it all. And maybe I could have. Who knows? But there are times in our life where we don’t even try. We don’t even plant the initial seed to see if we’re good at what we want to do. So our visionary goals are never met. And that sucks.
Fear can be the big inhibitor in these scenarios. The thought of failure can be petrifying and the post-failure perplexity of what to do next is too overwhelming to think about.
In my early college years I failed at being a film major, a field I was so certain would be my lifelong trade. Post-failure, I was so scared to choose something new. I didn’t want to craft a new goal that I was scared I wouldn’t achieve either.
But because life without goals is monotonous and boring, I chose to study journalism. I learned a lot and grew as a person. But it wasn’t going to be my end all be all. And since graduating college, I’ve learned that half the battle is all about planting that seed, looking for places where things will grow. When you do, don’t be afraid–reach in there and get your hands dirty.
Sure, your back might ache the next day and that seed, well, it may not even hatch. But that’s the risk you take when you try to become a harvester.
What we learn from our failed attempts is that maybe we need to approach things from a different angle. Maybe our fertilizer sucks, or maybe we shouldn’t even be farming to begin with. Either way we evolve, and our goals and dreams evolve too. That’s life.
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Klaus:
You're exactly right. One can't even begin to craft meaningful goals if you don't know where your passions lie.
Of course, sometimes it takes planting initial seeds of interest to discover if there's passion there to begin with.
-RP
Ryan,
Good post! We can't be good at everything, but when failing, the most important thing is not to become discouraged but to learn and grow from that failure. And not be afraid to try something new. It will help in one's own development and setting up attainable and stretch goals for the future.
And I like your statement of "approach things from a different angle." Often times I am so focused on doing things or thinking about things the same way that I forget to try approaching from different perspectives.
Excellent post, Ryan. I agree wholeheartedly.
Life is not about quietly trudging along, accepting the path given to you. It's about taking risks, making constant corrections, and a mix of rolling with the punches and dishing out some roundhouses of your own.
That's why I advocate doing one thing every week that scares the complacency out of you. Do something that stretches your comfort zone and, thereby, makes you grow as a person.
Also, some of my most interesting stories come from bad experiences I've had in the past. If nothing else, big mistakes make for rapt audiences!
Ryan -
It's tough, but what doesn't crush us makes us stronger. Many people smarter than both of us failed many more times than both of us, but they kept on trying. They got up, dusted themselves off, and pushed on.
You're young enough to make your mistakes now and still have time to recover. Experiment. Try new things. whatever you do, don't stop trying. Life isn't a spectator sport!
Thanks for all of the comments so far.
Chris:
I find that approaching things from a different angle keeps my brain fresh. When we focus on doing things one certain way all the time, things get stale very quick.
Ben:
The most interesting stories I tell are from bad experiences I've had. We learn so much from the times that we're down in the dirt. And it's fun to laugh at those moments once they're over with too.
Jerry:
Thanks for the encouragement. I really hope young people like myself read what you just said and take it to heart. You just have to keep trying, because there's no consolation prize for those who just sit around and watch.
Hi Ryan, nice post!
I agree that it's sometime necessary to abandon a goal because it turns out not to be achievable...
However, the trick is how to decide whether a goal is simply not achievable or whether you did not try hard enough. Quite often, success comes only from the fact that everybody else was giving up earlier. On the other side, not to know when to stop is dnagerous as well. I assume there are more unsuccessful actors in Hollywood who tried for years to become successfull than there are movie superstars...
Rather than focussing on goals I think it's much more helpful to find out about one's passion and motivation, e.g. is creatitity or scientific discovery among your main motivation? As long as you continue to focus on goals which are aligned with your passion, I guess you are on the right track...
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