Hai..


Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Astri Linasmi, a student. An adventurer. An observer. A patisserie-wanna-be. You can contact her via twitter.

What keeps me going is goals - Muhammad Ali

It is only 1,5 months before new year, 2014- and for Muslim (people used to say “Moslem”) it is been two weeks since Hijri New Year’s Day. The perfect moment to set life goals and do everything we have dreamed about for the whole year. Goals, what is the importance of goals, why we should set them, and is there any principles to keep in mind as we pursue them.

My father, in his repeating stories, tells about how difficult to live in his youth. He spent almost 28 years living in the village, which is really “village”-no electricity, no clean water, many children go to school with bare feet, just eating fried fish is a wonderful thing. However, he often dreamed about a family, living in a modest house with enough room for every child. Then in his childhood, going to Singapore is impossible. At least that was what older people say. Singapore is a city in a fairy tale, none of the villagers could go there, better sitting at home, catching fish or into the woods do as ordinary people do. What my father did then? Once after the marriage he did the “ordinary people do”. But after struggling a lot, he decided to follow my aunt, looking for a job in Batam. And yes, now my father got what he dreamed most. A modest house, and business trip to Singapore many times.

I also once read a story of a blind man who gets a lot of scholarships abroad. Taufiq Effendi. Blind since a teenager was not blocked his dreams at all to travel around the world. Japan, UK, Malaysia, Australia… He’s got it all through scholarships. He’s got it all through his dreams and goals to accomplish in life.

I have given two stories about the power of goals in mind, from the village boy to the blind man. And many more stories that can be learned if only we open our eyes that success and happiness begins with a dream and a purpose. We can also say the person who survived in life was not necessarily the richest, the most intelligent, or the most perfect physically. Those who made it through had a reason to keep going. They had a GOAL. In my father’s case, his burning desire was to see his family happy, not lack anything important such as food, clothing, housing and education. That is all.

Quote at the beginning is one of my favorite quotes. Goals are what keep us going, indeed. When I say goals, I mean not just one, let’s have many goals. Because once your goals has been reached, what will you do then? Don’t you will lose direction, lose the spirit and enthusiasm in life? One is okay, as long as you immediately set another goal after finishing the project.

Andrew Matthews, in his classic book, “Being Happy”, wrote two major points here.

• It is our nature to have goals. We can not live without them, or at least not for very long. Therefore, if you don’t have yourself a list right now, you need one.
  
• It is not so important what the goal is, so long as you have one! Some people manage to continually postpone doing what they think they might like to do with their life. But they are unsure as to whether the goal they have in mind is the perfect one for them, so they never do anything.
  

Here another reason for having goals. If you have some goals in mind, your thoughts will help to take you there as you will tend to be dwelling on your goals. If you do not have any, your thoughts will still take you toward what you think the most. Basically, your mind will take your dominant thoughts and propel you in that direction, assuming that your dominant thoughts are your goals.




Goals are the ships whereby we can become someone more than we already are. We need goals, not for what they get for us but for what they do for us. We may be tired and exhausted because the goal not being achieved, or take too long to achieve. But as Buckminster Fuller said in his book “Critical Path”, he stated about Law of Precession. Precession is the principle which always ensures that we gain many things in addition to the actual goal itself. In fact, the most important thing is not reaching of the goal but what we learn and how much we grow along the way.

What you get in pursuit of your goals is of lesser importance. The real question is, “What will you become?” It is worthwhile remembering the way things work on this planet, because nothing in this world travels in straight lines. And no goals are achieved without setbacks.

Astri Linasmi, 19 November 2013

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