The Windmill of Focusing on Failure

A friend reminded me this week that "GoalsWork for Success." Is it that simple?

Studies show that setting goals improve work, productivity, families, and lives. Setting goals increases success. No hype, just fact. We accomplish more when we set--and write down--our goals. We feel better when we act on our goals. Others help us identify useful action when our reservoir of ideas goes dry. Our success accelerates when we our report our actions to others. We achieve more when we set and work on goals.

We may not achieve all our goals. That is acceptable. Several people focus on the goals they did not achieve. They let the failures pull them down. They feel like failures. They allow despair to shadow their lives. Some vent anger at themselves and those around them. Many become fatalistic and surrender to their feelings.

I call false limitations appearing real windmills. My reference comes from Don Quixote who thought he fought giants, when in reality he fought windmills. All of us face windmills in life. All of us see limitations that don't exist.

Focusing on our failures is one of the windmills that limit our success. I've met people who achieved several goals. They lived better lives. They moved their careers upward and more satisfactory. They took their family to amazing places for vacations. They eliminated debt, increased savings, and grew investments. Yet, for all their successes, they could only see their failures. Their windmill, focusing on their failures, overwhelmed any joy of success.

One method for defeating this windmill is to print each success on strips of bright red paper. Print failures on pale yellow. Put them both on the wall, refrigerator, or tack board. Your eyes will be drawn to the red papers first. You will naturally start seeing your successes. It sounds irrational, but since windmills are irrational, we must defeat them irrationally.