No I did not just graduate, thats my cousin Miguels weekend honor. I graduated this last December from Florida International University if anyone cares to know. The the reason for this post though came to me as i sat there in the O-Dome watching my cousin walk with his graduating class. It hit me that i have been to complacent and comforable with my life as it is and have only taken baby steps forward. I need to light a fire under my ass and get stuff going.
Ever since I left the structured time tables of highschool it has felt as if someone had the Tivo remote and was fastforwarding time in my life. Years are now nothing like i remeber them. They are like watching NASCARS zip by. It would frustrate me cause I felt like what i had accomplished in that year was not enough and I hate that feeling. Since then I have come up to an alternative way of judgeing my accoplishments and achievements as I grow older. Instead of judging year to year I decided I will Judge progress by 5 year intervles. I believe it will be a much better judge of where I am at the time, and it eliminates that pressure you feel as the year zips by. This Next year starts the 5 year cycle begining on Jan 1, 2007.
Goals I want to accomplish before the year is up are:
- Abtaining my Mortgage licence
- Openning a shareholders account to experiment & learn about the stockmarket.
- Recieve trainging in Kriya Yoga
6 comments:
Swear to you I was thinking the same thing. One of my professors told me that's the best thing to do. To have a five-year plan and not go too long-term and to then make another five-year plan from there.
great minds think alike buddy.
dumb minds think alike too...
just kidding.
In post-graduation "Now what?" contemplation, I think it's important to:
1) consider the time that has passed since graduation not as wasted time, but as a break;
2) not fear future time commitments and hard work which are necessary for achieving your goals; if you want to go to law school, don't let the fact that it's FOUR years of school prevent you from doing it. (just an example). Time flies. And hard work pays off (pardon the cliches).
You see, with this approach, there's no need to regret time "wasted" and it really will feel like it was a break once you get into first gear and start working your ass off for real.
At least that's how I see it to help myself feel better...
You know; maybe that's why employers ask you "Where do you see yourself in five years", rather than 1, 2, or 3...
But, to get back to your post, I think that sometimes it can be dangerous to set goals and make plans without having a contingency plan; sort of a "Plan B". For instance, what happens if in five years you don't accomplish the goal of getting a mortgage license? Would earning an MBA suffice? Or what happens if you accomplish all but one of your goals? Would you consider yourself a failure?
Don't get me wrong: goal setting is something that we all need to do. But, you should also be mindful that sometimes things don't happen the way we expect. In fact, MOST of the time they don't. What are you prepared to do if it doesn't?
Marianitata, you're just full of cliches aren't you?
Anyway, I agree with what Andre said, have a contingency plan, but I think that's why setting goals is doubly important. I mean, setting goals steers you in one direction if you're sincere about accomplishing those goals, and as soon as you set yourself toward achieving your goals there usually comes a time when you realize you want something different or you need to go in a different path, but that realization would not have come without the original goals you set for yourself. Sorry, I just think goal-setting is a great way to get things done and of putting things in perspective and it is also very important to set those goals within reasonable or attainable guidelines. Agree, disagree?
@ Ho: Agreed. Well put...
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