Goals

"Now where did I leave my joy?"

Like most frontal-lobe activities, goal-setting can be a tricky business. Ideas can develop a life of their own in a mind which is not disciplined to be measured and cautious. Ideas can become unhealthy obsessions. Goals often arise from these obsessions, conscious or subconscious. 

The target can overshadow the worth or process of attaining a goal. "Bigger is better" is a pitfall when setting goals. If the scale of a goal is more important than the process of achieving it, the goal can lose its value and quality. This is obvious in manufacturing where production of more units often diminishes quality control. 

Setting incremental goals, based in the realities of life each day has been a useful process in my practice. If goals are set in stages for a greater purpose or goal, I can continually assess the overall value of the greater goal in my life as I build. If the greater goal is abandoned for a goal of greater value, I have lost less time and energy in the process by discovering the need to change direction sooner with less time and energy invested. 

Our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from grand ideological goals, based in a hubris of shock-and-awe tactics. Brutality with technology trumped rationality with humanity. The war machine ran out of control quickly. Goals of true democracy and peace are still not met after nearly a decade. The all-or-nothing mentality of the military in setting its goals was at the core of its failure. 

Having a practice, an ongoing mindful methodology, for approaching life's goals is very helpful. Being guided by the value of the process of achieving any goal is key. This takes the sting out of some of the inevitable set-backs of reaching through a challenge to the goal desired. "I am doing this because I will be learning something valuable in the process" is a better motivator than "I'll do this or else" or "Do or die" or "I'll show them". 

One of my measures of the ongoing value of any goal is whether the process of striving for it is making me a better person. Winning in anything violent is automatically eliminated by this criteria. As is winning by cheating. Violent sports corrupt the process of goal setting for many people, in my opinion. These people feel they can only achieve a worthwhile goal in competition with others. This lies at the root of  the failed capitalism we now experience. Achieving goals through cooperation with others brings value and connection to the life of the seekers. While they may have different goals in mind, their cooperation in achieving their individual goals together enhances the efforts of each. It is an added value to the process. 

As a human being, I believe my chief goal is mastering my own mind. As I incrementally approach that valuable goal, I find that setting and achieving other goals of value become easier. I can reach without letting go of my happiness.