Achieving Goals Within Time Limits
When I set goals for myself part of the very goal itself will often be to get it done within a certain time period. Some of the goals we might strive for might already have time periods set on them where you have to get them done within that certain time period. In the past I've talked about Boy Scouts in this forum and the goal if becoming an Eagle Scout. That is a good example of something that has a time limit set on it if you want to do it. If you have the goal of becoming an Eagle Scout you have to do it before you turn 18 as one of the requirements to becoming an Eagle Scout is that you have to be under the age of 18 when you do it as determined by the national Boy Scouts Of America organization, so if you do join the Boy Scouts, you from then until you turn 18 to become an Eagle Scout since that is the time period set by BSA.
Now, even a goal that doesn't have a set time period put in place by the organization in which you will be achieving the goal you might nonetheless set a time limit for yourself in which to achieve a certain goal. Lets say you work for a company and you have a goal of being promoted to a certain position within that company and you want to do it in an x number of years. You've set that time limit for youself, to reach that position before that x number of years have passed even if the company doesn't require it. So time limits for goals, as part of the very goals themselves can be set by the individual who wants to achieve said goals, at least I often set time limits for myself in which to achieve certain goals, anybody else?
Now, even a goal that doesn't have a set time period put in place by the organization in which you will be achieving the goal you might nonetheless set a time limit for yourself in which to achieve a certain goal. Lets say you work for a company and you have a goal of being promoted to a certain position within that company and you want to do it in an x number of years. You've set that time limit for youself, to reach that position before that x number of years have passed even if the company doesn't require it. So time limits for goals, as part of the very goals themselves can be set by the individual who wants to achieve said goals, at least I often set time limits for myself in which to achieve certain goals, anybody else?
Comments (16)
I think that setting deadlines is essentially positive, because it makes your plans real, avoids forgetting, helps to be serious, fair, solid.
However, there are risks as well, depending on the kind of growth you want cultivate.
Deadlines contain the risk of distracting you from listening to your personality, your humanity, the specific rhythms, pace, speed of your body, your mind, your psychology, you.
For example, if you want to grow in your ability to love people, you can set deadlines, but you might loose sight of your creativity in this process: creativity can mean that your personality needs to set its own spontaneous pace and speed to develop its new and maybe even revolutionary ideas: you can consider how contradictory the following statements are: "I want to make a discovery within the next two months", "I want to create a revolutionary idea within this year": you can see how the idea of a deadline is kind of contradictory and even funny if connected to creativity.
Another problem about deadlines is frustration: it depends how you react if you fail in respecting a deadline: if you end up thinking that you are a failure, you are not good, this means that you lost sight of the importance of listening to yourself.
On the contrary, it can also happen that being successful in reaching a goal within a certain time can make you blind about the amount of work, of improvement and refinement that you still need to do: for example, you might set the deadline of learning and understanding the philosophy of Heidegger, or of Nietzsche, within the next two months. After reaching the deadline, you might think that you have been fully successful, loosing sight of the fact that most philosophies are so deep, so rich, so open to unknown consequences, that most probably we will never finish understanding them.
My goal is to grow old and die, and to do it as slowly as possible. A man focussed on goals and always in a hurry is called a "bisy backson". The trouble with being goal oriented and busy is that one misses the wonderful scenery and the wonderful characters of the world. It's just not much fun, and what is life for if it's not much fun?
I don't set goals.
:lol: Not in the least sense interested in the live fast, die young crowd, eh?
Look at how Mayflies live (life expectancy 5 mins for females - 2 days for males)! These insects accomplish everything some lucky humans do (birth, childhood, adulthood, family, death and all the intervening crap), it's just that everything is faster, a lot faster, for them. Talk about living in the fast lane!
I know some people who have no patience when watching movies. The parts they get thems stoked are played at normal speed and the parts that are boring are fast forwarded. I wish we could do that in the real word. Skip to the interesting part storyteller, forget the buildup, I want to know how it ends!
Goals! I recall a video clip in which Daniel Bonevac (philosopher) claims that a goal-oriented mindset may not be the best way to live life. Did he mention stress? memory read failure.
You let other people set goals for you?
It ends in aging, illness, and death. How else?
It's standard to do so. The term is "smart goals".
Yup. I was thinking more in terms of exhilarating stuff that happen before we kick the bucket.
You mean, the distractions?
Not all stories end in physical death. Exciting stuff happen before we cross the river Styx.
Read a book baker, preferrably one that doesn't end with the deaths of all the characters.