Goals and Resolutions

I read a book this month called The Happiness Project (author's blog found here) and while some of it was fluffy nonsense, much of it was quite good. But she mentioned that she differentiates between a goal and a resolution. Which was a concept I found interesting.  Goals  are things you work to achieve. They have a specific point in which you can check it off.  In my case, running another half-marathon and getting my CPR certification are goals. On the other hand, resolutions are ideas you want to incorporate or things you want to do regularly. Daily scripture study and finding the joy in motherhood are resolutions.

As I think about it, I can't say that one or there other is more important.  Goals are finite and at times very satisfying because we do get to the point where we can look back and say "Hey! Look at what I did! I made this cake/ran this race/learned this language/earned this degree."  It's great to be able to have resume material. And most goals require  some sort of resolutions to reach them.  You have to practice regularly to reach the goal.  Without the goal it can be really hard to keep doing the boring, day-to-day parts. Practicing a musical instrument everyday is a lot easier when you know you have a performance coming up. Deadlines make great motivators.

But goals in and of themselves can't really change us has human beings. It isn't so much running the race that I feel proud of.  It's the work I put in that makes me proud.  It's being able to put a name to what I feel has changed in me.  When I ran a half marathon I felt like that made me an athlete for the first time in my life.  But the half marathon itself didn't make me an athlete.  The fact that I ran several times a week (and enjoyed it) made me an athlete.  While getting CPR certified is a good goal, what I actually care about is being the kind of person who can help others in an emergency.

The downside to goals is that once you accomplish a goal, there's a little bit of a let-down; a kind of "now-what" feeling.  You either have to set your sights even higher than before (which doesn't always seem appealing after working really hard on one thing for a long time) or you have to decide to change directions completely (which makes me feel like I'm going to lose all the ground I gained in the first area.)

On the other hand, once you have made a resolution part of you life, it's much less easily lost, and more easily altered to fit your current needs.  If your real desire is to be able to help people in an emergency, you don't have to stop at CPR certification. You can look into further levels, life guard certification, or even teaching the classes yourself, if that floats your boat.  If you want to be a good athlete, you don't stop at a half marathon, you can move to strength training, start hiking in the wood more, or take up swimming (if running a full marathon sounds as boring to you as it does to me.)

There really is no giant point I'm trying to make here. I was just musing on this and decided to type it all out.