Alan W. Goff
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Cliché’s for Goal Achieving
I was recently engaged in an annual tradition I have been doing for many years. Once a year, during that lull time between Christmas and New Years, I put on some good music, sit down at a large table and roll all the loose change I have collected over the past twelve months.
I know many of you are probably laughing. I’m often innocently teased by family and friends when they see me bending down to pick up a stray penny off the sidewalk, parking lot or store floor. Each night I also empty out my pockets and put all my collected and unspent change in a large container. As I looked in amazement at the amount of money I collected this year, I couldn’t help but think of a couple of clichés that really apply to goal achieving.
When I was growing up, I used to hear my grandmother say, “Look after the nickels and dimes, and the dollars will look after themselves”. For a long time, I used to think that was a foolish little saying that might ring true for someone who lived through ‘The Great Depression’, but had little relevance to me. I used to think that was one of those ‘poverty mentality’ sayings that I avoided believing in so that I could focus on prosperity thinking instead. But as I understood the truth and value in that little line, I couldn’t deny how quickly and easily my change grew into dollars and how fast my dollars multiplied… moving me forward in the direction of my financial dreams.
I’ve had financial goals for years. Wanting to achieve a certain level of income, revenue, savings or investments each year that would allow me to do something I couldn’t currently afford. Like in any good goal setting and achievement process, I would break down the large goal into smaller sub-goals and work diligently at them and occasionally focusing back to the large goal as not to lose sight of it and make sure I was going in the right direction.
The goal achieving process reminds me of a poem written by Harold V. Melchert. “Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.” In other words, you do need to take your eyes off the overall goal once in a while to focus on what’s immediately at hand in front of you, but never lose sight of where it is you want to end up and be sure to enjoy the process.
We need to always remember that if we look after the sub-goals that need to get accomplished, the realization of the larger goal will inherently look after itself.
As I went to the bank, struggling with the surprising weight of my bucket full of rolled change, I couldn’t help but be reminded how easy it is to achieve any goal, even the ridiculously big goals, when we break them down, benchmark our progress along the way and keep our focus straight. Which brings me to cliché #2: ‘By the inch it’s a cinch; but by the yard it’s hard'.
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