I have heard that teens, especially ones my age, live only for today. They don’t save, they don’t plan, and their only worry is whether or not they’ll eat lunch. Now I admit, I haven’t looked into getting a college scholarship for myself yet, and I’m not exactly sure where I’ll be six years from tomorrow, but I did learn a lot today about setting long-term goals, and making them happen, because I spent a day with David Smith: current pastor of Family Worship Center in Pueblo CO, and one of the best goal-setters I’ve ever met.
Our day together started with a trip to Starbucks in order to grab something hot and say hello to a couple of relocated members of his church who had just recently had a baby. The baby girl was doing fine, and her parents were too. We stayed and talked with them for an hour or so, and then left. Our next stop was the mall complex. We dropped his wife off at Wal-Mart™, while we headed to Barnes & Noble. We browsed around a while, made a few purchases, and, after making a quick stop at Dick’s, left the malls and started talking.
The main thing Dave had wanted to talk to me about was long-term goal setting, since most of the kids my age don’t know anything about it. The first thing we did was to find a goal for me to go toward. Since I’m a football guy, my goal was to kick a fifty yard field goal in five years. Immediately, we got to work. Dave took my five-year plan and divided it up into one-year segments, those into three-month segments, and those into daily exercises. Basically, his point was that if you want to accomplish something in five years, you have to start getting it done today. So my daily routine was to go out and practice kicking field goals, run, and work out a little. The three-month routine was pretty much stuff that I needed to do that would take longer than a day. And the yearly one was simply a check to make sure that I was right on schedule with my training.
So my five year span was divided into individual sections, but the question was, what should I do every day, month, or year that would enable me to kick my fifty yarder? Well, as I mentioned before, I had to work out and practice kicking every day, so that I would grow stronger and more accurate. I also had to be able to do regular stretching exercises to elongate my leg muscles. But a huge thing I needed to do was to bring in outside people into my training program. One part of that would be to find another kid around my age to “compete” with while kicking, to get that competitive drive going. Another thing would be to see if any colleges around where I live offer place kicking training camps. And a third possible option might be to actually contact a professional kicker and ask him for some advice.
I think you see what Dave and I were doing here. We were building a routine that fit my day, but also pushed me and made me go past my normal max. We also gave ourselves a checklist that was a way to make sure that I was up to par every day, and wasn’t falling off the pace or anything like that. Oh yeah, if you’re thinking about making a long-term goal for yourself, you can use this method. It isn’t limited to football. So if you want, you can develop something for school, or for reading books, or even for your own weight loss program. 😉 The important thing to remember, whatever you do, is that you can’t get something done at the end of your goal if you can’t begin getting it done today.
And that was what I learned today. We dropped by McKay’s Bookstore after we were done talking, got a few books, and then headed back home. I couldn’t wait to start to put into practice what I had learned that day, and be on my way to finally kicking that fifty yarder. Of course, it’ll take some work, but I know that one day, it will all be worth it. So how about you? Are you ready to move past the “living only for today” concept? Are you ready to develop your future into something beautiful? I know I sure am.
