KEEP SOME GOALS

 

KEEP SOME GOALS 

 

Our education system is without doubt faulty and flawed. The time to educate a child is ‘hundred years before he/she is born’ said Bertrand Russell, many decades back. There is no allowance in any curriculum that makes an effort to draw the attention of the students to discover their true strengths and inclination. Hence, we have rote learning in place.

Till the time, a youngster arrives at say standard 10th  or ‘O’ levels, there is no formal evaluation done by either the student or the relevant educational institution to see where the child should head with his unique composition of mind, that gives him/her distinctive skills, traits and abilities.

Once I got out of the childhood fascination to be flying aircrafts , I was unsure, what I would want to take as a profession - medical and engineering were and are still the most popular route taken; another matter only a few make it; so having swung the pendulum between medical sciences to engineering, I arrived at a conclusion, that neither suited me – so, the obvious choice was business education. This is not to claim that a well thought decision was made: being no good in sciences, it was more an accidental deduction, the option was to try the untapped and unknown.

we continued without any meaningful alteration, the inherited system of education.  Where the centrality of objective was to make oneself an employable commodity.

When natural indicators and talent aren’t recognized , that’s where the society at large suffers, and due to non-recognition the blessings are wasted. Since the possessor is oblivious of his distinctive skills, these remain unused and unemployed. At the basic level, efforts must be made firstly by the family and then by the educational institution, to provoke a child to set for himself a goal or objective. The likely tilt in determining the goal would be closest to what the child is capably blessed, to exploit and use.

The process can begin by requiring each youngster to write down their wish list (not all of them will ever be goals) of what they wish to achieve and make of their life? Some will have set goals of Himalayan heights, whilst many would be lost in the mundane quest of which job will give them the quickest success – here, at that age, success is largely about dollars and cents, make of car, house, etc.

Once this is done, a parent/ teacher (manager) must sit down to examine the ambition charter, where through conversation, distillation must take place, to render the non-doable to what is realistically possible. No goal can be achieved by a single leap forward. The goal will have to be broken- down into small bits of efforts, each of whom should be successfully achieved, to later join the dots of efforts, towards accomplishment of the goal. After determination of goals, it is time to break them down for achievement, in a measurement, of both time and the ultimate outcome.

Let’s now take these arguments to the corporate floor. Every unit of the organization has to have written down measurable goals for achievement within a predefined timeframe. After clubbing the goals and objectives of all units, the organization has in place a business plan. This strategic business plan can then be reduced into annual budgets. Goals inherently must be inspirational. They must carry within itself unlimited supply of hope. Goals are essentially the outcome of specific vision and purpose of either the individual or the entity. Nature has blessed us all with thinking power; a persistent reminder of the big picture by our minds allows us to internalize these objectives of life, as part of our sub-conscious mind.

Life without a goal is like a rudderless ship on the ocean of living. It will merely get tossed by currents and waves that are never in our control.

It is only worthwhile to have goals achieved that go beyond respective lives. Gainful is the objective to determine where do we stand and where we could be!

All goals are intertwined. The moment you arrive at the successful achievement of ‘one goal, there is another goal waiting -- when you have arrived at something, that’s the point where you begin.

When Michael Heseltine wrote as a student in the mid-fifties, about the 90s decade, as being “10, downing street”, he was clear headed that his goal was to become PM of Britain (and he almost made it, but for the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher and the Helicopter deal) similarly as a lad, when Charles Dickens told, when he was steeped in abject poverty, to his father, that he would one day own the attractive on the hill house, called, “Glady’s hill”; he knew he would have to earn enough to be able to purchase that dream house. So, after amazing persistence, when he hit the Eldorado, with his publishers support; Dickens finally bought the house. The lesson learned is that the objective (goal) must be ‘clear’ and ‘measurable’.

Those, who form this desirable habit of writing their goals and objectives of life, known  fully well, that these are not written on stone with a chisel. Hence those must be re read and revived at regular intervals, for either alteration or may be a paradigm shift of either the goal itself or the relative strategy employed.

Goals are an elixir of life, they can also serve as directional for pursuit. He is wise who looks ahead. The most important aspect to bear in mind is first the determination of goals and then to develop steps and strategies that must be undertaken.

Most do not realize their goals, due to their own foggy mind, that doesn’t permit them to either define with clarity or they themselves suffer from lack of faith and belief, that the goals are achievable.

The possibility of achieving any goal without resistance will remain Utopian. The stumbling blocks, impediments and barriers will always be many during the quest of achievement of goals. Constancy is a primary ingredient for accomplishment of goals. Since the goal/ objective achievement is dynamic and active, it is essential to review it periodically, for the institution of new approach or for jettisoning some of the past methodologies. With changing priorities, the methods must change too.

“The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder- a waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you. The will of labor will formulate the results. If the pursuit is regular, consistent and persistent, then every single hour, is an honor of calling.”

Personally, I have always found Leonardo Da Vinci words most inspirational for pursuit of an objective, “obstacles cannot crush me; Every obstacle yields to stern resolve; He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”

I am filled with fear, when not having a goal than when I am not able to achieve one. Life has to be a mission. A noble pursuit.