Our word of the week is "Goals" and I'm not talking about soccer goals. We've been discussing how to set and achieve goals for ourselves.
There's a big difference between a dream and a goal. A dream is something that you think, "wow that would be cool" and never do anything about it. Dreams are wonderful!
A goal is something that you decide that you want to learn, or do, or become, and then you create a plan for how to achieve it. Without the plan of action, goals will remain simply dreams.
For example, if I said, "I want to learn how to draw really well!" and then never did anything about it, that is a dream. To make it a goal, I would need to make a plan, and actually work on it. The plan could look something like this:
Take a drawing class
Study drawings by artists I admire
Practice drawing for 20 minutes every day
Long-term goals may need smaller goals as stepping stones in order to make them manageable. It's awesome to say, "I want to be a black belt!" but that's a pretty long term goal. Most students take 5+ years to earn their first degree black belt, and that's only the beginning! Some intermediary goals may be helpful.
"Become a Black Belt"
Earn my white-yellow belt
Compete at a tournament this year
Increase my endurance
These are only a few examples of intermediary goals, and each of them would require their own plan, including things like daily practice, stretching, and other preparation. But by breaking a big goal down into actionable pieces, the big goals become more manageable to achieve.
I have challenged all students this week in classes to set a personal goal. It can be big or small, short-term or long-term. But my hope is that by setting goals, we will all become better martial artists than we would otherwise. I have found through personal experience that having a goal to work toward inspires us to work harder, push ourselves, and become our very best selves.
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