I have always been a goal setter. I can’t remember a time beyond my early formative years when I didn’t aim to stretch myself in one or even several areas of my life. However, I would love to have a smile for every time I failed; for example, the times when I fought the laziness of getting out of bed early in the morning to exercise as a teenager.
And if I consider all my failed goals, I have to be fair to myself and consider my successes too; and there have been many. I would even suggest that most of the visible and tangible personal growth goals based on carnality I have already achieved, but until recently a pretty big battle remained.
I have struggled throughout my adult life to regulate my eating to one of a consistently disciplined nature. I managed to eat right and exercise self-control ninety percent of the time, but then I would have my blowouts, where I would sometimes bite and graze for a day or two, usually on the weekends.
This problem I have considered for a long time as tea last frontier when it comes to carnal desires. I had previously tried probably a hundred times (or maybe more) to gain control over this aspect of my life, all to fail, until now.
This is what I did:
1. Thinking I needed such a powerful focus on this goal, I planned my next 1,000 hours starting at 7 am Monday morning. I created a pocket score sheet with groups of five hours grouped together; there were ten clusters of five hours each line (fifty hours each line) and twenty lines.
2. I diligently tracked each five-hour window on my path to success, even counting my percentage completion measure, celebrating as the hour count and percentage increased.
3. I set sensible ground rules for myself that include fasting a little at lunch, eating full breakfasts, eating fruits and vegetables, and exercising every day. I sought to achieve a feeling of semi-hunger and maintain it daily. I was also mindful of going into mental autopilot.
4. Then I focused on process, process and more process; forgetting the result he was looking for, even wanting to delay it.
Then I found out that I learned the following things during the process:
1. My goal-oriented thinking soon did a 180-degree turn. I started to really savor every part of the process. She didn’t hate the trip like she had before. I wasn’t pining to complete it so I could go back to my old ways. In my thoughts, those old ways were now history, an important part of my past. Yes, past.
2. I considered each 0.1 percent toward the goal as significant milestones. Remembering that we sleep for hours every 24-hour day, some hours were incredibly easy. For every hour ahead of me there was the open and clean possibility that I would react and respond perfectly, winning this present battle. Achieving momentary perfection of the goals we set for ourselves is very encouraging.
3. The most important lesson I learned was if we really want to achieve something we must keep it in mind. It must become the most important thing in our conscious thought pattern.
4. At any other goal juncture, I have found that the hardest part is maintaining the hard-won ground—that is, staying focused and on track without compromising the long-term goal. The way I looked to handle this was by adding a second thousand hours and then a third. So I would end up with a solid 123 days consist of habit tracking record. That’s four months of doing the same thing day after day, every hour consistently.
Achieving all of our goals is really a fairly simple process. The word “process” is operative; It’s fundamental. This method worked for me because my mind has always been math oriented. It could also work for you.
Whatever we do, we must never give up on our dreams and goals. A hundred failures can precede the eventual singing success. Your moment of victory!
© 2009 SJ Wickham.
