Do You Have Goals or Wishes?

There is a Tremendous difference between a Goal and a Wish.

I constantly hear people saying their goal is to be successful, to be a leader, to develop a huge organization, to own a big house, an exotic car, expensive jewelry, or go on a dream vacation… What most of them are really saying is they WISH they could wake up tomorrow and be or have all of the those things…

When I was a teenager I wanted to learn how to play the piano… or so I thought… After a few lessons and hours of practicing the same boring song… I think it was Mary Had a Little Lamb… anyway… after only a few hours of effort I had thrown in the towel and determined that I didn’t want it badly enough and wasn’t willing to do what it would take to develop that skill… I only WISHED I could play the piano…

I still think it would be cool to walk into a room full of friends and amaze them with my incredible piano skills, but I’m not ready to make it enough of a priority to classify it as a goal… its on my bucket list for sure but at best we can file this one in the loooonnnnggg term goals category…

My First Real Goal…

One day while making a phone call from a pay phone at a gas station… yeah I guess I’m dating myself a bit with this story.. oh well… I’ve earned my grey hairs 🙂 (Back to the story)… I look over and I see this hottie pumping gas into her Ford Mustang while her friends waited in the car… After I finish my cal my friend and I casually asked what they were up to that night. Miss Hottie said that they were going to hang out at the local pizza place… “WHAT A COINCIDENCE… SO ARE WE!” was my prompt response… Truth be told we had no plans nor had we ever set foot in this pizza place before but it was worth the fib for a chance to get to know her better.

After hanging out a few more nights and several late night phone conversations I was pretty hooked on Miss Hottie and determined that I wanted her all to myself… BUT I was shy and never spoke up… We were just friends in her eyes and I never told her how I really felt… I let her slip through my fingers with my silence and 6 months later she had moved to another state and I was heart broken… We never even went on a single date… She was a WISH not a GOAL…

A year passed by when I ran into a mutual friend of ours who informed me that Miss Hottie was back in town… Realizing my previous error I called her up and went to visit her at her mothers home… She was still the same girl I had fallen in love with so I nervously said that we should go out on a date sometime… she agreed and we chose the coming Saturday as date night.

This time would be different… I wasn’t going to lose her again… She became a GOAL… My main focus… All my thoughts and decisions revolved around her… I eagerly developed elaborate plans to gain her affection… I had flowers delivered to her house the day of our date… I wrote her a poem… I made reservations at a nice restaurant… scoped out a romantic movie… I even had a Limo pick us up at her house… A little over the top for a first date??? You haven’t heard the whole story yet…

The movie theater was in the local Mall so after we ate we had some time to kill before the movie. We strolled into one of the many jewelry stores… while looking at all the beautiful watches, bracelets, and rings in the case I casually asked her which ring she liked best… She points to her favorite and low and behold it was the very ring I had purchased for her earlier that day… I got down on one knee, presented the ring and asked her to marry me right there in the store… and the best part… She said YES! 

Miss Hottie is now Mrs. Atkins.

She’s still Miss Hottie in my book but fast forward to today and we’ve been married for 20 years… We have 3 great kids and we are still best friends…

When you want something badly enough… DECIDE that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen… Create a game plan and never look back… I’ve heard it said that people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan… So Plan your Work then Work your Plan…

I’ll make another post about how to properly set goals in a future post. Until then decide on what it is you really want and are willing to work for and make it happen and go get it!