If you want to achieve every goal you have in your mind, forget about setting time constraints.
Our goals typically follow this format: I want to achieve blank by the time I’m blank. We all have ideas for when we’d like to own a home, be married, have a certain income, lose an amount of weight, etc. But what happens when we don’t achieve our goals in the desired amount of time?
When you said you’d be married with kids by 30, but now you’re 33 with neither, you feel defeated, like there’s something wrong with you. When you say your side business will be making $1000 a month by next year, but next year comes and you’re falling short, you feel like a failure. When you want to lose 20 pounds by summer, but realize it’s much harder than you thought, you think you’re doing something wrong and should quit.
On the one hand, time constraints can help you find motivation and urge you to start working toward your goal right away. On the other hand, if you’re not able to enjoy the process no matter what the outcome, time constraints will tear you down.
The time in which you’d like to accomplish something should never be set in stone. You can desire to lose X amount of weight, make X amount of money, or develop a habit by a specific point in your life, but if that day comes and you’re not quite where you wanted, keep going. You didn’t do all this hard work just to quit now! Who knows? Maybe you’re just a month away.
Use time constraints as an initial source of motivation – a reason to start and work hard. Develop a love for the process of getting healthy, learning a new skill, running a small business, or whatever goal you have.
The point isn’t to do something in a set amount of time. The point is to do something. Try, learn, fail, succeed, and grow. Take as much time as you need.
July 27, 2022
