Be Ambitious with Goals, Not Deadlines

“A goal with an ambitious approach will make you successful, but a goal with deadlines will leave you in stress and regret, nothing else.” 

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You will relate to it after reading this story.

A man was passing by a banyan tree with a packet of sugar cubes. Accidently, his leg got twisted by a piece of wood that came under his feet while walking. Some of the sugar cubes came out of his bag and fell in a small pit beneath the big banyan tree. The man got up, dusted his pants, took his bag, and continued his journey towards home.

Ants were watching all this from above. A few of the ants came down from the banyan tree branches and gathered around the sugar cubes. Each of them started to push one sugar cube. A day passed, one reached the bark, the other one managed to reach the top of the pit hole, and the third one was in the middle of the bark. Suddenly the third ant fell with the sugar cube. Without wasting any time, she started to look for her sugar piece, as soon as she found it, she again started her journey. The next day the second one managed to reach the top. The first one and third one reached the middle of the bark. The third one fell again. She still searched for her sugar cube, took it, and again started her journey towards the top of the tree whereas the first one reached her destination. The next day third ant that fell twice from the tree, at last, made to the top.

This story teaches us how to deal with distractions and how to achieve goals by never giving up. The ant was focused and determined to achieve her goal. She didn’t set a deadline to achieve it. She just kept on trying, even when she failed and at last, she made it.

Moral: We all have our struggles. We fight unique battles. Being ambitious with your life’s goal is important and this very thing will keep you moving even in your very bad days. But setting a deadline to reach that goal is not ideal. Let us see why?

Read more: Subconscious Mind – How to Unlock and Use Its Power?

The Journey

You, being an ambitious person, want to achieve a certain position in your life. This will be considered one of your life’s goals. You can have multiple goals in life. Now, you have set a deadline to achieve those goals. For instance, you want to hold a managerial position in an MNC by 30. You want to travel the whole world at 35, etc.

What if, you become a manager at 35 and travelled the world at 50? Does this change the happiness and excitement you will feel by thinking; at last, I achieved what I dreamt of?

Yes, it will. It will change the way you look at your accomplishments. Because you set a deadline for your goals and you were not able to make it, you will feel a sense of guilt. You will feel that I wasted my time. If I could achieve my goals within the deadline, I would have been able to do much more in my life. Without realising that thousands in this world die with their broken dreams and unaccomplished goals.

No matter how much time it took, at last, you made it. Cherish this. Be grateful and look at the brighter side. But this will only happen if you don’t set a deadline to your goal.

Be true to yourself. Work every day to go a step closer to your goals. Eventually one day, you will be where you always wanted to be.

Learn to enjoy

When you focus on career goals you will come across many obstacles. These obstacles are frightful things. But surprisingly, obstacles are only visible when you distract from your goals. This is a bitter truth. When you learn how to deal with distractions and work aggressively towards your goal, you will convert every obstacle into an opportunity.

Many can teach you how to achieve goals. But you yourself can learn the art of enjoying the journey.

Help others

Most of us get too busy in achieving the goals that we forgot to lend a helping hand for those in need. Imagine you faced a roadblock in making a final presentation. Some important graphs are missing in your presentation and you don’t have data to make that graph. These figures are important as with the help of these numbers you can show the client how your company can do the job better comparing all the similar service providers in the market.

Your colleague sensed your tension and asked if he could be of any help. You told the whole thing and he works some extra hours with you to make things up to the mark for your presentation.

The next day, client liked the facts you showed in the presentation and gave the contract to your company. A result of which, you got promoted as a project manager.

Imagine if you didn’t get the help during your hour of need, your company might lose the client and you would not have accomplished your goal to become a project manager.

People play an important part in accomplishing your goals. So, make sure to lend a helping hand wherever you sense the need. Help wherever you can, and you will be helped whenever you are stuck.

Read more: Anger Can Control You and Can Become the Reason of Your Suffering

Distraction

While working toward your goals you will face a lot of distractions. If you know the art of how to deal with distractions, you will be successful.

Here are a few tips to avoid distractions and achieve goals

Address the problems: If you are facing some problems or distractions while working on your goals, make sure to address it. If you leave it unnoticed. Or ignore it for a certain time, it will become severe and consume much of your time later.

Pay Attention: If you want to know how to be ambitious and happy, the answer is to pay attention to things around you. At times there are things that we leave unnoticed at the start. Later when things become severe and unbearable, we start to react. Which eventually effects our mental peace and slows down our journey towards the goal.

Sometimes we make small problems big by avoiding them.

Conclusion 

Pen down your goals, make plans to achieve them, but never set a deadline for those goals. Achieving goals matter the most. Doesn’t matter when you will achieve them. Make sure to enjoy the journey of hard work and passion.

1. A goal with an ambitious approach will make you successful.

2. But a goal with deadlines will leave you in stress and regret, nothing else.

3. Be true to yourself and work every day to go a step closer to your goals.

4. Your hard work, one day, will take where you always wanted to be.

5. People play an important part in accomplishing your goals.

6. Make sure to lend a helping hand wherever you sense the need.

7. Help wherever you can, and you will be helped whenever you are stuck.

8. Sometimes we make small problems big by avoiding them.

9. Pen down your goals, make plans to achieve them, but never set a deadline to those goals.

10. Make sure to enjoy the journey of hard work and passion.