The Future

Why having a goal is important.

Having a positive vision of the future is important. I’m not in favor of unrealistic optimism, but it is important to have some idea of what you want to accomplish despite the realities of the present.

Without a goal to work towards and achieve, you have no reason or meaning in your life. I’m not saying, your goals need to be grand. Heck, there have been times in my life where just getting out to the mail box to get the mail was a major accomplishment. What I am saying is, having that as a goal, as stupid and minimal as it was, helped me to get through some rough times in my life. I might not be able to take on the whole world, but I could, at a minimum get out to the mail box. And that little victory helped me to reclaim my will to live.  I hadn’t given up. Not totally anyway.

Sometimes you just have to take it day by day. And that’s ok.  However, I find it best to have longer term goals for myself, larger projects to work towards. Projects that I can break up into smaller doable things.

For instance, my  - get myself to the mailbox today, was part of a larger goal to eventually reclaim my life and get on with living life fully. Every time I succeeded in getting to the mailbox, I was succeeding, in a small way, towards my larger goal.

Nowadays, I have big goals and big plans. These ideas and projects and goals keep me motivated and engaged and help me feel alive, even when things aren’t going as smoothly as I had hoped.

So think about the future. What do you want to accomplish? Now set out and do it! Just don’t forget to pick up your mail in the meantime. The small tasks are important too.