why set goals?

Sometimes we pick up the newspaper and read where an accountant has just rowed across the Atlantic in a bathtub, or where a librarian is riding a camel from L.A. to New York.

We might ask ourselves, "Why not take a plane?"

The answer to that is, "If you travel by bathtub (or camel), you arrive a whole different person to the one that left!" Not only do you reach your destination knowing a lot more about stars and weather and navigation - you know a lot more about yourself, and about your own courage and capabilities.

Buying a plane ticket doesn't have the same effect.

Likewise, when you set a goal to run a business or a marathon, when you set a goal to get a degree or a promotion, or to learn Chinese, you arrive a different person to the one that started.

That's what "goals" are really about - what they make of us in the process of achieving them. That's why we bother. Your friends and your brother-in-law won't always understand this concept!

We set goals not for what we GET, but for what we BECOME.