Goals and Resolutions

I had intended to write about this on Sunday, what with it being the second day of a new year and all, and to write about Sunday's topic (Reflection) today, what with it being almost the end of this year.  But something in my own personal life has caused me to flip these two around, so I hope you'll pardon me if I talk about things a bit out-of-sequence.

Just chalk it up to my wacky, whimsical, creative side.

By some people's definition, my wife and I are now debt-free.  As of this morning, the only loan we still have is our mortgage on our house, which some people don't consider "debt," rather an "ongoing obligation."  (My wife and I are not one of those people, but that's a story for another time.)  When we got married, we consolidated our student loans and had something on the order of $25,000.  Since that time we'd been paying the usual monthly payment, dropping our principal amount by as much as $10 or even $15 a month, if we were lucky.  At that rate, we'd be done with the loan some time in our early 40s.

In November 2009, we set a goal for ourselves to get debt-free within 40 months (and for us, "debt free" means all debt, including our mortgage).  At that time we had a car loan, this student loan, and our mortgage -- by all accounts, we were doing really well ... but it wasn't enough for us.  We wanted to be completely debt free. 

The car loan went that first month (we'd been working on getting rid of our debt "unofficially" for a while), and we then turned our attention to our student loan.  Now, 13 months later, we've paid off the whole $22,500 we still had when we started this little experiment, plus made some serious dents in our mortgage. 

How did we do it?  Did we win the lottery?  Rob a bank?  Rob the lottery?

No.  We made a goal.

At this time of year, we often talk about making "resolutions" for the new year, things we'd like to see happen in our lives in the coming twelve months.  Here's the problem with resolutions -- they don't work.  Resolutions are ineffective and useless when it comes to making things happen.  They're no more than dreams, which, if Disney is to be believed, are no more than wishes your heart makes. I wish the entire population of North America would turn into handbell ringers and all of them would start buying multiple copies of my music ... but that just ain't gonna happen.

A goal, on the other hand, can be very effective: you set the condition or conditions you'd like to see occur, and you set a deadline for their completion.  This only works if the conditions you want to happen aren't something ephemeral and vague (I'd like to be thinner), but rather specific and quantifiable (I'd like to weigh 165 pounds).  Goals also can be easily broken down into sub-goals -- smaller bite-sized actions that you can achieve on a regular basis, which propel you inexorably toward your goal. 

My wife and I set a goal to pay off all our debt (just over $124,000 when we started back on November 28, 2009) within a 40-month time frame.  Our larger sub-goals were to pay off first our car, then our student loan, and finally our mortgage.  Our smaller sub-goals included such things as being frugal and spending less money on non-essentials, as well as paying extra on our loans whenever we could.  Given that our total debt right now is just under $86,000, I'd say that setting goals works, huh?

So how can you tell if what you've just set is a goal or a resolution?  Take a look at this list to see if you can figure it out:

• If it includes the words "some day," you have a resolution.
• If it includes a comparative word (a word ending in -er or using the word "more), you have a resolution.
• If it isn't achievable in any realistic sense (flying without the aid of any mechanical device or jet pack), you have either a resolution or a very vivid dream.
• If it includes a final deadline for achieving it, you have a goal.
• If it includes a way to definitively measure your progress, you have a goal.

One last example of goal-setting from my own life.  In August of 2009, I embarked upon what I lovingly called the "Year of Insanity."  In 12 months, my goal was to write a total of 48 pieces of music, which for me was a huge (or insane) number of pieces to complete in one year.  I met the goal on July 18 of the next year, with almost two weeks to spare.

What was the result of the Year of Insanity?  Some of the pieces went nowhere -- I played them in church once or with one of my wife's groups, and then set them aside.  Five of them have had some serious interest from various editors but for whatever reason haven't been officially picked up for publication yet.  One of them won a composition contest and will be published soon.  Aside from that, 20 of them have been accepted for publication at a half-dozen different publishers.  Some of them are currently in print and available for purchase; for some of them, I have the engraver's proofs sitting on my desk right now awaiting one final look-over; and some of them won't be available for another six months or a year or more.

The point is, by setting a concrete goal with a definite time line, wonderful things have happened in my career and in my life.  As you count down the seconds remaining in 2010, I urge you not to set a wimpy resolution this year, but rather a nice, powerful goal.  You'll be glad you did.

Happy New Year, folks.