The Importance Of Maintaining A Steady Stride Towards Your Goals.

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Anyone that has set any type of goals for themselves knows that goal setting consists of both high and low points while we're aiming to achieve them. There are going to be times where you set a goal for yourself that works out exactly the way you planned it to. This type of achievement is what the majority of us look for when we set goals. We want whatever we're looking to do to work out on the first attempt. The other side of this is that there are going to be occasions where working towards a goal that you've set for yourself is going to come with stumbling blocks. These are the times when we find ourselves facing adversity towards reaching our goals. The tribulations that we face in these type of instances play a major role in whether we accomplish our goals or not. I dare say that depending on what kind of goals you set for yourself, the latter is likely the path that a good many of us will have to face. Another aspect of goal setting that I've pondered on recently is the aspect of speed. Some of you may wonder what exactly does speed have to do with setting goals for yourself? Not only does speed correlate with reaching our goals, it is often times one of the major driving forces in our lives. Various goals have different speeds at which they're reached. There will be some goals that can be reached very quickly, while there are some that are more time consuming. For clarity on the topic at hand for this week, I'm primarily coming from a perspective of the goals that require more time to reach. That being said, regardless of how long certain goals take to reach, from a mental aspect of viewing this, most of us are going to want to come out of the blocks fast. I personally see this as a potenially bad thing, which is why I believe that it is of importance for us to maintain a steady stride towards our goals.

HAPPY 2020 EVERYONE! This is your boy Brad H. coming at you all once again, and I'd like to welcome you all to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! This is a space where I address various topics that I think about in my everyday life, and through the thoughts I have, I aim to put them into words that will hopefully help in keeping us motivated. I'd like to say thanks once again to the long time readers, and a big welcome to anyone that is reading for the first time. I hope that the new year has been treating you all well so far. So for my soapbox in this week's topic, I'm going give my thoughts on the NFL playoffs that are starting today. It sort of feels like déjà vu for me because I remember writing last year during Wild Card weekend, and the Houston Texans were playing first just like they are today. So we got the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills taking on each other first. Not sure who is going to win that one. I'm rooting for Houston, but I'm skeptical about their quarterback Deshaun Watson as of late. He hasn't been playing all that well in my opinion. Maybe I'm just a little bitter because I had him in one of my fantasy leagues. Next game is the New England Patriots vs. the Tennessee Titans. Normally we would predict the Patriots would win, but I predict the Titans to take this game. The Patriots offense has been terrible this year, and the Titans have been playing well for the past several weeks. Tomorrow we got the Vikings taking on the Saints in New Orleans. I believe the Saints got a huge chip on their shoulder after last season, and I think they win tomorrow. Finally for Wild Card weekend, we got the Eagles and the Seahawks squaring off. I don't like the Eagles, so I'm pulling for Seattle. I would give Seattle the edge, but the Eagles are like cats; they have many lives it seems. For those of you that are watching the NFL playoffs, what are some of your predictions? Feel free to leave that in the comment section. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, lets talk more about the importance of maintaining a steady stride towards your goals.

Before going into the importance of maintaining a steady stride in our various quests towards reaching our goals, I want to start off by saying that the main reason that I chose to bring this up as a topic is primarily due to the fact that we are officially in a new year. A new year is often viewed as a clean slate for a lot of people. I'm sure that many of you will be setting new goals for yourself this year, and my hope is that this topic can be used as a reference for us all in aiding us towards reaching those goals. Now I spoke in the preview of how speed plays a large role when it comes to our goals. The biggest reason why I feel that speed matters comes from the fact that different type of goals have different expectations for how long they will take to reach. You are going to have some goals that you can reach fairly quickly, maybe even in a single day depending on what you're trying to achieve that day. Then there the goals that are going to be more lengthy. These are the goals that could take weeks, months, and even years to accomplish. Now your quicker goals usually aren't as easy to quit on due to the fact that they often don't take long to reach. On the other hand, the more longer goals are much different because of the extended time they often take to reach. These more lengthy types of goals are the ones that will require you to maintain a steady stride if you want reach them.

For this section of the topic on maintaining a steady stride towards your goals, I'm going to use an example of the sprinter vs. the steady stride mindset when it comes to setting goals from my perspective. When you think of Olympic runners for example, they are often categorized as being sprinters or long distance runners. We're all aware that your sprinters generally run the shorter distances, which means they have to get out of the blocks fast in order to win the race. The long distance runners have to be fast also, but they have to pace themselves more towards the finishing their particular race. If they do not properly pace themselves during the long distance they have to run, they will gas out and probably end up not finish the race. The way that these two examples coincide with the idea of accomplishing goals is that just as goals are defined differently for us all, the approach that we have towards them is a key component to how we complete them. Now you would think that if you have a goal that you'd like to accomplish that could be considered to be long term in categorization of goals, wouldn't it benefit you more if you had the steady stride mindset?

So all of this brings us to the entire point of this topic, which is the importance of maintaining a steady stride towards your goals. I mentioned earlier how a goal that could be classified as one that could be achieved quickly would likely mean that the chances of quitting on it would be slimmer right? From my perspective on this topic, the primary reason I feel we have to maintain a steady stride towards our goals is because the longer the mission takes, the more your will and desire to finish it will be tested. What I'm about to say likely goes without saying, but I believe that if you want to increase the chances of completing a goal that you've set for yourself, you have to be able to stay consistent towards reaching it. When something seems impossible, or becomes insurmountable, the likelihood of quitting increases in my opinion. I once heard the great boxer Mike Tyson say that; "It all comes down to dedication and consistency." You have to be able to have the mindset of viewing goal setting as more of the steady stride mindset that I referred to in the running example. It's all about the long game, and you have to be able to not allow yourself to get too high or too low when it comes to anything that you're trying to achieve. As with pretty much anything in life, a balanced approach is required in order to maintain a proper handle on things. So for all of you that are goal setting to kick off this new year, define what your goals are first and foremost. Secondly, gauge the amount of time you think it will take to reach them. Finally, pace yourself towards those goals, and maintain a steady stride along the path. I believe that if we do these things and not cut any corners along the way, we will have no problem reaching our goals.

Well that's how we're going to kick off the year 2020 here on 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that this was a topic that was helpful to some of you there. I also hope that there was some meaning and understanding that could be taken away from it. Like always, I thank you all that stopped by and read. If you have anything that you'd like to ask or contribute to this topic or any of the previous topics that I've covered, please feel free to leave a comment. If you're on Twitter and would like to connect with me, you can reach me @BradrickH. Well Happy New Year to you all once again. Lets make 2020 one of the greatest and best years of our lives. Take care everyone, and have a great week ahead. See you all on the next one!

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