Goals

After work today, I decided to walk from Wall Street to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, all in the hope that by literally killing my feet, I could drop a couple of undesirable pounds. It was a big goal, a lofty ambition, especially given the fact that I was wearing rain boots that hugged my heels a little too tightly thus making long walks nothing short of torture.

I set out to accomplish my goal by dividing the trek into measurable chunks. I figured it this way: Wall Street to Canal: 30 minutes. Canal to Houston: 15 minutes. Houston to Union Square: 30 minutes. Union Square to the Barnes and Noble at 45th Street and 5th Avenue: 30 minutes. Barnes and Noble to Trump Tower: 15 minutes. Trump Tower to the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 82nd Street: 30 minutes. Grand total minutes to accomplish my goal: 2.5 hours. Amount of fat melted, 2 pounds. How hard could that be?

And, I would have made it if I hadn’t decided to stop in at Barnes and Noble to use the loo. By the time I walked back out two hours later, having sat down to read a couple of magazines and books, and eat two slices of coffee cake, and drink a tall chai, it was pitch black outside, and already 9:00 p.m. I wasn’t about to walk to 86th and Lexington via Central Park West, to catch the IRT back downtown now. I mean, it's a good neighborhood and everything, peopled by doormen opening and closing doors for their Christmas bonus, but I wuddn't gonna do it. My common sense told me it was time to head home.

But the coffee cake weighed heavily in my stomach. So that even if I could not fulfill my goal of walking to the Upper East Side, I had to work off the sugar. So I turned around and headed back downtown to Union Square where I caught the “L” train back to Brooklyn. It was probably the same amount of time, yet, I was quite bombed. How could I have allowed myself to fall so short of my goals? My goal was to walk to 86th and Lex!

Now that I am home tapping away on my computer (and hoping I can get this entry in before today turns into tomorrow), I realize that sometimes, even though we set goals, we have to allow ourselves some flexibility. As small business owners, the path to success is not necessarily linear. There are going to be curves and turns and start-overs. There are going to be lapses, and failures and disappointments and falls off the wagon too. The important thing is to not to let temporary set backs turn into permanent blocks.

Sure, the experts tell you that one of the first steps in achieving success is to write it down as a goal, and to write out your “flight plan” so that you can make sure that you know exactly where you are going and how long it is going to take you to get there. But many experts will also tell you that, every flight goes off course at some point during the trip, yet most flights arrive quite safely to their destination. So it is not about necessarily staying on the exact charted course that results in success. It is not about sticking to the goal without veering off from time to time to read a book or have a slice of chocolate cake, necessarily. It’s about the bigger picture really.

The goal is the end destination. How you get there is beside the point. Because if you think about it, I probably walked about the same distance by walking from 45th Street, to Union Square, as if I had walked from 45th Street to the Met.

And I lost exactly the same amout of weight, which is pretty much zero pounds.

So the point is, I shouldn't be feeling bombed that I did not accomplish my goal. What was the ultimate goal? To lose 2 pounds. Did I accomplish it? I might have if I hadn't eaten the coffee cake. But the fact that I veered off my path is not the reason I did not accomplish my goal. It was the darn cake. I did not accomplish my goal because I ate the darn cake.

Well, I can always get back on the wagon tomorrow.