Every September since my sophomore year at Newark Academy, I’ve written myself a promise. The details change from year to year, but the purpose stays the same. I compose a short but carefully thought-out list of goals—some small, some ambitious—and sign my name at the bottom of the page. I then fold up the page and place it in the bottom of my desk drawer. As the year progresses, I check off what I can. This ritual is simple and cliché, but I have found that my most successful years have been when I have taken the most time going through the motions of this promise. Whether you are in school, beginning the year at a new job, or embarking on another of life's journeys, try out this practice. You would be surprised how much you can actualize when you think deeply about your goals can. If you feel so inclined, drop a comment in the thread about a goal you have for this year. I’ll go first: I’d like to learn the basics of a programming language.
Best wishes,
Drumbro (Ben Schwartz)
I grew up a near-sighted boy with glasses in a hick rural town in upstate New York (which has sadly been subsumed into suburbia). I'm a redneck, and ah doo speak fluent hill-billy. I started keeping big goals in my mind by the time I was ten - typical male goals which were self-oriented (get a varsity sports letter [water polo], have sex with a beautiful woman, earn enough money to buy a car, get into college, go on daring adventures in far-away places, etc., etc. By the time I was in my twenties, I became much more religious and started thinking about what I might contribute to the world. Serve my country. Find the woman I truly love and want to live my life and make a good family with. Support that family (and now that dynasty) financially, make some good marks on the world (teaching I hope being one of them). I've had some big goals about money - not for extravagance but for achieving real financial freedom for our entire family (And more broadly I value and will fight for freedom and liberty in this world.) - while supporting that dynasty and continuing to do good things with that money. I attribute achieving a great many of my expansive goals (alas!, winning the Nobel Prize in physics remains elusive...) to two things: my deep faith in God and non-selfish prayer, and to a mentor who told me to not be afraid to have a list of big goals that are intrinsically good and to work every single day toward achieving them, if only by tiny steps. He told me: "Your dreams may seem far away and unachievable, but each and every day do something toward reaching them, no matter how small. Don't let a single day pass without doing that." With my faith and that idea that nerdy 10 yr. old boy has been able to achieve many (I hope good) things in the one short life we each are granted. You're on the right track Drumbro. One o' my own goals for this upcoming year is to spend some real devoted time with each of our amazing five (and soon-to-be six) grandchildren.
Run a marathon!