A balanced life requires balanced goals.
Each goal needs to be vetted against what’s most important to you.
Big goals especially can be attained at a cost that’s too high and leave you disappointed.
I have shared with you on many occasions how much I love setting and attaining goals.
Just as I shared last week, my word of the year is “just right.”
The phrase is a reminder for me of the lessons I’ve learned over the years around my goals.
The lessons I’m referring to today are not about the best parts of reaching goals but the other side of what can happen when reaching a goal.
The truth is not all goals that I have set and met have paid me the benefits I was expecting.
The reality is sometimes, while meeting my goals, I also get an eye-opener that there is such a thing as too much, too big, and too overwhelming. There is also the case of setting the wrong goal to get your desired results.
You may ask yourself, is there a goal that if I reach, I’ll be disappointed?
I have had several goals that, although I completed them it was a disappointment.
It may seem unlikely, but trust me, there are some dangers in setting goals without careful thought about the real result you are looking to get.
I believe this is a lot more common than we even know.
Think about it, who wants to say, “I made it, I met the goal, and it’s terrible!”?
I thought I would share one of the times this has happened to me.
Earl and I built our dream home over 15 years ago.
Once it was complete, it greeted you from atop a hill at the end of a long driveway—red brick with a wrap-around porch, setting in the middle of 55 acres. The screened-in back porch had a view of the amazing sunsets.
Please don’t think I’m being boastful or that I’m not thankful for the opportunity and its blessings.
Because it was one of the first goals I met that made me realize reaching a goal can help you see what was too much!
The original house plan that we settled on was around 2400 square feet.
That was a great size for our family of four. All the bedrooms were on one floor, perfect for our young boys.
But, while looking at the plan, I saw a need to add 4 feet to the living room. We needed space for a sofa table. I didn’t want it to feel cramped after all.
Those 4 feet were no big deal to me. But, 4 feet x the width of the house is about 200 square feet. So, a 2600 square foot house.
Still not bad for a family of four.
But it didn’t stop there. A basement is nice, and the storage would be handy. Plus, the boys were growing; it would give them a place to hang out.
So 2600 x 2 is still not extreme. But then there was the need for a garage. We added a three-car garage. We had the space, after all.
Still, it was manageable. The plan had an option for a bonus room above the garage.
Earl had always wanted a space to call his own. He had gone from sharing a room with his brother to sharing with me when we were married.
If we had stopped there, it would have been a large home.
But then something else came up. The architect pointed out with the roofline; we had the opportunity to add a second floor with no change in the dimensions of the house.
We thought about it, and when we spoke to some others, we decided to add the second story because it was a bargain for the amount of square footage we would gain.
So you can do the math 2400+200+basement+ 3 car garage +bonus room+ second story= Too Big.
We and others worked extremely hard to complete our home. The budget was stretched, adjusted, and stretched again.
The toll it took was much more than we had anticipated. It took over a year to complete.
I was finally able to decorate, but there was hardly any budget for it. Slowly over time, it was decorated, and it was a wonderful home for us for ten years.
But, I know that I should have had a little help with my goal setting because while it turned out beautiful and we loved it and were able to enjoy it, it wasn’t what I initially wanted, and it sure wasn’t what I needed most.
My original goal was for a home big enough to accommodate my family, big enough to entertain our extended family and friends.
We lived close to most of them; we didn’t need room for frequent overnight guests.
The boys needed room to play and have friends over, but little boys don’t need much room, and boys are easy to please with a spot on the floor or the end of a sofa.
The original plan for 2400 square feet was really what I needed and was my original goal.
The house was wonderful, but it took a lot of time and resources, and maintenance.
That was time and resources we could have devoted to many other things.
We eventually sold the house and not for the profit you might expect.
But it was a big, big house in a rural area. It took over two years to find a buyer. It was hard to leave what we felt sure was our forever home.
We miss the porch and the sunsets, but the occasional $1000 electric bills aren’t missed.
I attained what was a major goal; I had always wanted a house with enough room and to pick out everything myself and decorate just to my taste.
But, I didn’t clearly define the specifics around my goal.
That’s where the problem came up. Having a goal without thinking through how it affects every other area of your life can get you to the place where I found myself.
This was a hard lesson. But, now it causes me to pause when setting goals.
Sometimes big goals can be attained with a lot of push and enough money.
Yet leave us with some other things to manage, and the fix might not be quite as easy as the attainment.
Remember, the attaintment itself was hard enough.
The fix was even more difficult and time-consuming.
I love goals, big goals, but I have learned now to look at all factors.
When you reach the right goals for yourself in the right way, you should be able to fully enjoy the benefits of the goal you reached. That’s why now I’m working on goals that are “just right.”
P.S. If you ask Earl how the size of the house got out of control, he will be happy to tell you it all started when I added that 4 feet to the living room. 😂
>>>>Love reading blogs? Interested in more material like this one? Sign up for my newsletter today… Click here
>>>>Want to step up your sales game, but need help on where to start?? Join the community! Check it out …Click here
#balanced goals #goals #mindset #balanced life #youcandoit
