BEFORE YOU SET ANOTHER GOAL By Muyiwa Afolabi Over and over I’ve heard people emphasize goals as a major key to success and accomplishments in life. I hear leaders, I hear teachers, I hear speakers and preachers talk about you setting goals for yourself in life. I’ve heard it said you must set your goals, write them down and be clear about when you want to achieve these goals. As teachers and speakers we challenge you not to set small, little goals for yourself, we inspire you to set high and lofty goals for yourself because you have on your inside all it takes to achieve your goals in life. We tell you all things are possible, it’s just in you setting your goals, stating the objectives and working towards it. I’ve heard this advocated very frequently and I’ve taught this as well, but personally, I’m more passionate about seeing results in my audience than exciting my audience. I really don’t bother much if my listeners are not all high and excited and happy every time I speak, my priority is to see them grow, and achieve their goals and dreams. I’m more driven by telling the truth than creating empty excitements. So, I kept pondering and wondering why so many people with goals clearly spelt out are still not successful. I wonder why with goals set and deadlines marked, accomplishment is still scarce for many. Many people set goals and never accomplish them, many set deadlines and fail to deliver, many dream and are very clear about their purposes yet the ability to realize these dreams appear difficult. Many have blamed it on the environment, on governance, on infrastructure, on finance, on connection and many other factors. Yet I find it difficult to accept because there are still some people; though few who have achieved their dreams, and fulfilling their purposes in the same location and environment under the same circumstance, within the same challenging socio-economic climate. For example MTN is still growing in leaps and bound in Nigeria after about 13 years within the same market environment where Mtel; 0804 failed in just about a year. It’s definitely not the fault of the environment. So I started to think and wonder why this is the case. Suddenly it began to come to me, slowly but clearly that the problem has nothing to do with the goals, the problem is actually about growth. Not goals, but growth! Let me explain. You see, we are all raised differently hence, have our minds set differently by our environments and the people that raised us. My faith is not your faith, my courage is not your courage, my fear is not your fear, my emotional matters are different from yours, my belief and value systems are different from yours, my confidence level is different from yours, my intelligence; my IQ and yours could differ, my exposure and yours are different. The way I’m raised and the way you’re raised are different. We are not all the same. We are consequently, not all the same in our abilities, capacities and potentials. Incidentally, life in general and the environment we live in wouldn’t deal with us based on how we are; life deals with everyone the same way. Let me further explain, you see, the prices of goods and services don’t apply to some people and leave some people out based on individual differences, a bad road is a bad road to all road users, the road does not adjust itself depending on who is about to use the road. When power supply is epileptic, it is epileptic. The environment and life is not customized to individuals to fit their configuration in strength or weakness; life and environment apply to everyone the same way. However, life for individuals gets better as individuals learn to manage life better. Life challenges don’t bow to people, people surmount life challenges. Now depending on my strength and weakness, I may be able to surmount a challenge faster than you or slower than you can. Hence, achieving set goals is about individual differences and not deadlines. The success you record in life is based on the number and frequency of your victories, the frequency of your victory depends on your strength as an individual, your strength however is based on how much and how fast you grow and not about the size or clarity of your goals. This growth is purely developing the capacity to achieve your set goals, until the capacity is there, deadlines would keep shifting. Real, tangible success is about growth not goals. Your goals can be lofty and exciting and wonderful and even divinely revealed, but you will never realize the goals if you do not grow. Dear friend no matter how excited you get and how convinced you are about your goals, it will only remain at the level of plans and excitement if you don’t focus on personal growth. You see, growth is the energy of your goals, the energy varies from person to person, my style and procedure cannot be the same as yours because we vary in nature and configuration. We vary in temperament and natural endowments. Our strengths and weaknesses vary so our style and approach cannot be the same. For example if you’re interested in professional speaking and would want to run a program like this show on radio too, you may need to consider one of the toughest aspect of this show which is the ability to communicate your thoughts and information so clearly everyone understands what you mean at once as there is no room for questions, clarification or you having to repeat yourself; every listener must get it the first time. If on a show like this, you always leave your audience confused and they can’t always understand you, they’ll stop listening to you. As tough as this may appear for many people, it comes easy to me due to many years of practice, my natural gift and my work experience. A radio talk show is a radio talk show, it’s insensitive to individual differences; individual presenter would hence, need to master the art and surmount the challenge to avoid the possibility of failure. You see, your growth is the ‘power’ of your goals. And the ‘power’ varies from person to person depending on your temperament. Growth is acquiring all you need first that would make your goals possible. To achieve your goals, don’t just focus on the goals, focus more on your growth and your goals would subsequently materialize. Don’t be consumed by your goals as much as you’re consumed by the desire to grow. When you’re carried away by the excitement of your goals without growing into it, you arrive too early unfortunately as a mediocre or half-baked and very few would appreciate you or what you have to offer. We have too many musicians unveiling before their time, too many actors cast before their time, too many politicians contesting before their time, too many managers promoted before their time, too many Directors appointed before their time, too many business people launching out before their time, and too many single men and ladies getting married before their time; they are focusing more on age than maturity or readiness. Because they didn’t grow into it but lunched out on the basis of excitement and so called faith, they fail so fast because they lack the competence, expertise, maturity, experience, discipline and strength of character required for sustainable success. Consequently due to this failure they become afraid to set another goal. Fear takes over and begins to direct and control their life and choices. Focusing on realizing your goals can be exciting, motivating, inspiring and sensational, if you don’t grow however, all these would vanish when you fail. If you however focus on growth; becoming better and being fully ready before activating the goal, it is most fulfilling, gratifying and satisfying. Real goals and real wealth can only be grown, managed, maintained and sustained by the matured; not just the talented and excited. As this year gradually comes to an end I assume many are already thinking and bothering about their failure in achieving their goals and many are already setting fresh goals for the coming year. But before you set the goal, are you ready for it? Are you growing? Growth, not just goals makes you a huge success in life.Enjoy your day
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 04:31:09 +0000
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