Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I’m thinking about where I’m at with my goals.  Part of it is I get impatient and I want to do better.  For example, at the beginning of each year, I think I of saving a certain amount of money, repairs to my cars, things to do to the house, etc.  I can feel good about the goals I’ve set, but when I revisit a goal, say the savings goal in the middle of the year, I may be on track or ahead, but I want to do better.  I get a little stressed out and want to increase my savings, be more aggressive on Betterment, or ETrade.

I need to get better with setting goals and not letting them affect me as much.  If I’m on track or ahead of my goal, or even if I’m behind, as long as I’m doing what I can, I need to be better at being OK with the outcome.  There are always unexpected things that happen in life…a car or home repair, maybe there is something new that you want to focus on – such as buying new appliances for the kitchen, or going on a trip you didn’t think about when you initially set goals.

Something I can learn from sports, is you have to take it one day at a time, one step at a time, one yard at a time.  In football, it’s all about getting 10 yards in your 3 or 4 tries per possession, depending on how aggressive or confident you’re feeling.  The large goal is to win the game, and even then, it’s not about the score, it’s just about doing better than the other team.  There are short term goals of getting through the first 10 yards, the next, the next, and so one, until you get to the end zone or kick a field goal for some points – hoping not to turn over the ball before that happens.  At the end of the game, no matter how confident you are about the win as a fan, or how well the team is doing, they can still lose to the other team.

In business and in life, I know I need to set a goal, do my best, and not let it affect me if the outcome is not quite what I was looking for – and I especially can’t let it affect me in a negative way when I am meeting or exceeding my goal.  It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but that is something I need to work on this year.