Goals, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

I have a love/hate relationship with goals. On the one hand, I get great satisfaction when I complete actions on to do lists. It usually only lasts for a day, but it feels great. On the other hand, I would like to enjoy life on a day to day basis. Goals take me out of the present moment and make me “think” in terms of the future. They give me “to do lists” which I don’t want.

End result? I guess I’ll continue setting goals.

Heather and I were discussing a variant of this at lunch today. Many times, I will reach the end of a day, and feel like I didn’t do anything. When, in fact, I DID accomplish several things but failed to give myself credit for them. It’s one thing to have a to do list hanging over my head. But when I don’t even get the satisfaction of checking the suckers off, I’m denying myself the best part!

End result? Nothing. I’m not going to force myself to check them off every night. Instead I need to work on NOT feeling bad when I just live life.

My long term goals haven’t been reviewed or updated in 5 years. Here’s the goals I set in July 1999 just after I quit paid employment:

1) Rent house, move elsewhere. (I was in Dallas.)
2) EMT training
3) Golf, tennis or softball league.
4) Read corporate books in Borders. Become an expert on corporations.
5) Get organized
6) Little league coaching
7) Saxophone lessons
8) Day trading
9) Math self study
10) Digital weather station
11) HAM radio license.

I’ve done half of these tasks. The other half are out of date. What made me even think of long term goals was Ernie Zelinski’s new book: “How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free.” In the first chapter there’s a list of Ian Hammond’s long term goals (just retired.) I thought they were cool enough to list on my blog, because they got my juices flowing:

1) Study for an astronomy degree.
2) Learn to speak Spanish and German fluently.
3) Write and publish a travelogue, short stories and poetry.
4) Read all the “classics”.
5) Volunteer as an overseas science/French/English teacher.
6) Study for an electronics degree.
7) Cycle around the world.
8) Compete in an international chess tournament.
9) Play classical guitar to concert standard.
10) Learn tourist Italian and Portuguese.
11) Paint watercolors.
12) Do ten things I haven’t thought of yet.

End Result? I’d like to recapture the enthusiasm Ian obviously has and that I felt 5 years ago. Time to review long term goals.