Goals

We go through life like an arrow flying through the air -- homing in on our target. At the beginning of its flight, the arrow flies straight and true. However, as the arrow carries on with its flight, it gets subjected to external factors like the wind. This causes the arrow to veer off its originally-intended flight path. Sometimes, the arrow can be like a guided missile, and fly back on its original route. At other times, the arrow is too influenced by those external influences, and is unable to recover, causing it to miss its target.

Now, what does this have to do with our lives? Just take a moment to think, and visualise ourselves as the arrow. We start out with a goal, be it short-term or long-term. When we first start out, we dream about the benefits of achieving our goal. This brings us the determination to work towards our goal. We get automatic motivation, and we start out at lightspeed, breaking all barriers and surpassing all of our original plans. This brings us a confidence boost, and we feel happy with ourselves.

However, the inevitable soon happens. Our schedule begins to catch up with us, and we find that we are up to our necks in other urgent matters. Our lives become too busy for our liking, and whatever goals we have set are slowly eroded away from our minds. We forget about the goal, and soon visualise new goals for ourselves, which ends up becoming caught in the same vicious cycle.

As the wind blows on the arrow, outside influences affect us tremendously. Our family and friends turn into critics, telling us the flaws in our plans and all the different methods of failing. We become discouraged and the fire that initially consumed us begins to extinguish. Eventually, we end up missing the target.

Of course, some of us are like guided missiles. We can keep our focus on our goal and outcome, using them to nourish us and guide us each and every day. No matter how the wind howls, the self-guided system in the missile manages to guide the missile back to its goal.

Most of us are like arrows. We allow external forces to affect us greatly, and often lose the inspiration to follow through with our aims. When this happens, we have to focus on our outcome and draw inspiration from it. When we do this, we are actually installing a self-guided system in our minds. Only then, can we actually succeed in our plans and hit the target like William Tell shot an arrow into the apple above his son's head.