Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

We’re back from our holidays.

It was a 4 day 3 nights cruise to Penang (an island on the west coast of West Malaysia peninsula, near the Malaysia-Thailand border) and Phuket (an island on the west coast of Thailand, it was on of the place devastated by the 2004 Tsunami) on board the SuperStar Virgo Cruise Liner.

It’s was very fun and relaxing. We enjoyed lots of good food, quality time with my family and in-laws. As you folks know, I like to set goals for whatever I do. I did again for this holiday and my goals was:

“To make sure everyone enjoyed the trip”

Now you must be thinking, that goal does not comply to anything I have been teaching in my online lesson? It’s neither SMART nor Big! Am I contradicting myself? Not exactly.

Objectives - Very Short Term Goals
There are times where we set Big, Inspiring goals that are SMART and we put them in black and white. This type of goals are typically mid-term to long-term goals, not always the case but typically. Even short-term goals are typically a week to a month in duration.

But there are times where we set goals for the moment. Goals that are rather clear in idea but vague in execution (i.e. you know you want to enjoy but you are probably unsure of how you would be enjoying or what you would be enjoying). Some people refer to this type of goals as objectives. So I shall use the same term too

The truth is that everyone sets objectives (in their mind) but because this objective weren’t written down, most people loose sight of their objectives the moment they get into the action. If their action produced a result that matches their original objectives, they will be happy with their actions. But sometimes, the opposite happens and they will be unhappy with the result or the event itself.

Where Do People Set Objectives
They may set objectives when they:

- Go shopping
- Go on holiday
- Go for meals
- Go for a short study session
- Attend a Seminars
- Go for a show
- Exercise
- Do anything that may produce a result (which probably covers almost anything we do)

Have you ever been unhappy after doing any of those simple day-to-day activities above? Did you happen to end up doing something contradicting to what you started off wanting to do? I bet you do, sometimes I do too.

My Holiday As An Example
Let’s take my holiday as an example.

On this particular trip, we had 2 land excursions - one in Penang and one in Phuket. We could book a pre-planned excursion or go free and easy on our own. We decided to take their pre-planned shopping excursions for both locations.

On our shopping trip at Penang, we noticed that our girl Stella was not that excited and was grumbling towards the end of the 5 hour excursion. She said that it was all walking and not that exciting for her. It was true in a sense. I wasn’t all that excited myself. I looked around at the other kids in our group and sure enough, many were bored and some were already sleeping on their parents shoulders.

At the end of that excursion, I had to make a choice if we wanted to bring Stella along for the next excursion to Phuket as it would probably be more shopping, more walking and we are expecting spicy foods and lots of bargaining at Patong beach flea market. I had to asked myself honestly if she would enjoy such a trip and my answer is no. I asked her if she would enjoy such a trip and she said no.

So we made changes to our plan and placed her with the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion. That decision cost us a S$12 excursion ticket (it was non-refundable and we already purchased it) and an additional cost of S$72 for the stay at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre. But was it worth while? Definitely! She enjoyed herself hugely for the whole day and we had a memorable shopping spree at Patong Beach, Phuket!

On the excursion at Phuket, I saw some parents disciplining their kids who were kicking a fuss because they were bored and that probably ruin their mood on that trip for the rest of the day. I do not believed that those same people came on trip wanting to have a bad day. In all reasonable sense, they probably had the same objectives as myself. But what happened?

Remembering Your Objective And Be Flexible
I think the difference was that I remembered my objectives and was flexible enough to make changes to accommodate the situation. While those other parents either did not realize the situation they were in, did not remember their objectives or wasn’t flexible enough to make changes to cater to the changing situation. Probably a little of each factor.

It is interesting to note that there were a handful of children at the Cruise’s Child Care Centre for the duration of the excursion which means I am not alone in making that kind of arrangements. So there must have been other parents who knows their objectives well too

You Should Try It
Don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself. You will be surprised at how frequent you walk away being happier then before.

That’s all for today. There will be more post coming up and also stay tuned for Goal Setting Lesson Four.

Cheers,
James

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