The Roads Not Traveled
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We’ve often talked about goals and goal-setting here at the Zone (well, at least twice). Goals are good. Goals are necessary. Goals serve an important purpose in helping us accomplish, uh, stuff.
Over time I’m sure you’ve had lots of goals. Long-term ones, short-term ones, etc., etc., ad nauseum. In fact, sometimes it’s a chore just figuring out the goals you really want; separating the peach from the fuzz, so to speak.
But what happened to the goals that, well, didn’t make the cut? Do they just fall by the wayside? Are they consigned to goal purgatory, that place where all despondent goals go when they don’t quite make the team? Whatever happened to them?
Now you may be wondering where I’m going with this. Well so am I. Actually, it was prompted by a tag from William Tully at LOGICal eMOTIONs, who recently wrote New Meme? (likely not), wherein he talks about the “Top 5 Goals I Never Seriously Considered”. Yeah, Tully, sometimes it can be a real shame to think about the way things “might have been”. Gee - what if any of these goals had actually happened?
(Tully and I have been talking a lot about memes lately, and it’s been something of a race (sortof like watching turtles do laps) to see who would fire off the first new meme. I gotta admit though, the more I thought about this one, the more I liked it.)
After all, IF (he said, sagely) the value of a good meme is to help blog readers learn more about blog writers, then this is actually a pretty good way to provide some insights into the way our brain cells tick over. Not bad, Tully, not bad! (And by the way, you know what they say about giving someone too much rope!)
So after considerable, er, musing (hey, it’s what I do here!), I give you…
The Top 5 Goals I Never Seriously Considered
- I have always wanted to be a spaceman. This one tops the list by a very long way. Ever since I was a kid (that’s human, not goat), I’ve wanted to be one of the ones who went out and explored the vast universe; to go where no man has gone before; to seek new worlds and new – well, you get the picture. I even wrote about what got me started in that direction here, if you’re interested.
- Also from the same experience above, I wanted to become a writer. Oddly enough, I’m now actually on the road to that one; something I never thought would actually happen! Who knows? Maybe one day there will finally come the Great American Novel from the same keyboard that currently gives you Middle Zone Musings.
- I actually started, but turned away from being an orchestra conductor. I’ve written songs and music, but have always wanted to stand up there and conduct my arrangements in front of an audience. *sigh*
- Being an inventor was always something that seemed exciting and interesting, until I discovered how much work, time and failure went into it. But that was then (hey, when you’re a kid, the LAST thing you want is to work and fail!) Nowadays, however, although I realize the value in failure, alas, I’m too busy to do much inventing anymore. However, there IS that one cool idea…
- Finally, I’ll add engineer to the list. Interesting twist of fate, this. The fact is, my father was an engineer, and as I grew up, I thought I wanted to be one too. Well, that is until I ran into that nearly impermeable barrier called calculus. Then I wanted to be anything but! And yet… and yet, here I am an engineer and project manager, and loving it! Go figure.
So there you have it; five interesting little tidbits into the heart and soul of yours truly. What say you, my friends? Do you dare reveal yet a bit more about yourselves to an unsuspecting world? I don’t ask this lightly; I really would like to know a bit more about you. It’s what friends do.
So let’s see… I think I’ll tag Liz Strauss, David Armano, and Matthew Stibbe. What were the things you thought about doing with your life… but didn’t?
You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!
22 responses so far
Middle Zone Musings is a comfortable place to stop, have a cup of coffee and exchange ideas, big or small, with applications in the real world. I don't ask for much, just a bit of your brain every now and then. Have a seat, take a load off, and relax...
Gotcha, Karin. Hey! Nice place you have there. I’ll add it to my reader so I can keep up.
‘popping’ in as requested by Mr Turtle, sorry Mr Bob
Karin, trackbacks don’t seem to work with Blogger for some reason. Don’t know why they haven’t implemented it.
I went to your site but missed it. Would you mind popping the link here? Comments will accept HTML.
A-n-d t-h-a-n-k-s! (that’s turtlespeak)
Hi turtle (sorry ;-))
In the light of blog-etiquet I tried to track-back to here, but doesn’t seem to work???
(my links are in place though, rest-a-sured)
“Blog-etiquet”? Isn’t that up near Connecticut? Bwa-ha-ha-ha
But of course, Bob, of course
(part of blog-etiquet, right?)
Howdy, Karin! Of course you can join the fray! I was just telling that to a friend of mine yesterday who wanted to do the same thing.
That’s what’s fun about these things, you never know where they’ll end up. But please, link back to me too so I can keep up
Hello, Amanda, and thanks! Having ridiculously big goals can sometimes spur me on to actual, more practical goals. Besides, it’s fun to think about them anyway…
And I’ll drop by your blog… if I can find the time!
He Bob
Mind if I ‘tagg’ along? While reading I was already thinking about mine and really love this post
(and also think meme’s must be allowed to ‘wander’ about a bit, so will post mine on my blog - not sure about tagging though, I’ll leave that open for other turtles to follow)
You had a a lot of big goals. we all have big goals. Your 5 tips were great.
Amanda
http://thetimemastery.com/blog
Ah, you’re too kind, Tully! Yeah, I thought it was a bit more than the usual smarm.
Here, have some more rope… bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
“sortof like watching turtles do laps” - ok, that just made my day!
One COULD make the argument that this one is along the lines of “5 Things You didn’t Know About Me”, however, I think because it is ‘goal’ oriented it gives that unique twist - stuff you have to think about and admit to.
Solid post Bob!
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Thanks for spreading the meme, Robert! It was fun to participate. http://www.codymckibben.com/2007/04/slow-and-steady-wins-the-race-the-turtle-meme/
You’re welcome, Cody! And welcome back!
Yep, “turtle meme” is right! This HAS to be the slowest meme EVER!
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Very interesting article! There are so many things that I wanted to do with my life when I was little but at some point it diverges from the expectation. It is not every day one can pause and think about what one really wanted out of life.
Hello, Cin77! Hey, who knows what the future holds? I think if we remain open to possibilities, then some of these “pipe dreams” may actually come to fruition.
Thanks for dropping by!
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