On Becoming a Man: 60 Days to Year End – Count Your Goals, Now!

It’s a new month, people! It’s been a whooping 3-0-5 days into 2011 already!

Today’s OBM post will be about taking stock of the outgoing year. Just like yesterday, billions of people across the world welcomed the year in style, albeit the time difference. I could imagine people screaming “Happy New Year!!!” in a sequential manner round the globe at the dot of 12 on January 1st. It would be amazing have bird’s eye view of the whole world and hear the shouts of joy ascending in an orchestra of voice boxes…

Now that we are neck deep into the year, how have we fared as individuals, households and as a nation? At the beginning of the year, I documented my goals and have been monitoring them over the months. My score card so far is not sad, but can be improved upon even the short time left. So many lofty goals: specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. I bet you’ve heard that acronym a zillion times before. Truth be told though, many times we set vague, unrealistic, and gargantuan targets for ourselves. Of course, we have no business setting small or mediocre goals, but caution must be taken that we may not become depressed at the end of it all. A man ought to outgrow the tendency to set unrealistic goals. Big dreams have a corresponding high level of risk for failure, which should not deter us from aiming high, but a man who would lead the affairs of a home must not be given to youthful frivolities and daydreaming. We’ve got to get serious; get realistic!

I cannot tell you the limitations of the common saying that “where there is a will, there is a way,” but it holds true many times. When you set your goals, if at all you did, did you count the cost? What did you have in you and within your control to invest in achieving them? If you set out to shed some physical weight, end an abusive-relationship, save a higher percentage of your income, get a car, improve your grades in Grad school, propose to the one you would love to spend the rest of your life, write your best song ever, win an international contest, whatever it is, how willing were you to pay the price? Deliberate efforts make a man successful in his plans.!

Let’s take a second look at this cliché from my last post: “Our thoughts become our actions, our actions become our habits, and our habits can make or mar us.” A reader asked for practical tips on how to break bad habits. These could be specific to the nature and/or complexity of the habit, and I am not an expert, but I could share a few general tips, especially those that have worked for me. I think that your reasons/motive for breaking a bad habit should be clear to you. Can you honestly answer the great question, “Why?” Outline the benefits of the resultant positive change to you, believe you can do, and just do it! Allow no doubts and take positive action. You could select an accountability partner or partners who could check on your progress in an agreed manner. Then, the truth is: some habits are more difficult to break than the others. Just don’t resign to failure; keep at it.

To round off today’s post; I encourage you to flip through your goals/targets for this year and tell yourself some cold, hard truth. Honestly assess yourself, and outline the unattained goals. Could you weed out the outlandish goals you had set in based on the wrong motives? 60 days is a long time to achieve many of your dreams before the year comes to an end. I would like to read from you, how you hope to move from 60% to 100% success in two months. See you in a fortnight. Go succeed!

Photo credit: www.f1wolf.com
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Gbenga Awomodu is an Editorial Assistant at BainStone Ltd./BellaNaija.com. When he is not reading or writing, Gbenga is listening to good music or playing the piano. He believes in the inspirational power of words and pictures, which he explores in helping to make the world a better place. He blogs at Gbenga’s Notebook (www.gbengaawomodu.com).