A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline
My kids are an endless source of learning and inspiration for me. Yesterday was just another example of that. My youngest son Brett is in second grade and he is very competitive. He decided to try to beat the prior year high score winner of the person who had read the most books during the school year. About a month ago, using the calculator on my Iphone, we figured out how many books per day he needs to read from now till the end of the school year to claim the number one spot. That number was three.
At his school they take online quizzes after they have read a book to make sure they thoroughly comprehended the story and to keep track of the number of books they have read. Every day, like clockwork, I get email verification of the three stories he has read. He is eating the elephant—one bite at a time—and making progress towards his goal.
Ironically, once we put forward motion into achieving the things that are important to us, there are unexpected benefits that we realize. For him, it was an award he achieved yesterday for reading the most books in his classroom, and in his entire school during the last grading period!
I don’t know about you, but I have spent the last month complaining about my post-holiday weight gain. Its now almost the end of January. If had followed his approach, I would have lost the weight I wanted to this month, instead of talking about it. Today, I will humbly acknowledge the lesson I have learned from a 7-year-old and put my goals into action for 2010.
