I have said this before: I get more of a high off of when I accomplish a goal than anything else. It reinvigorates me. It makes me feel amazing. It sets you up to accomplish an even better goal. You aim for something that does not seem achievement and them BAM! You do it. You win at your own personal battle. That is an amazing feeling. I never stop setting goals for myself. I want to aim higher. I want to be better. I feel sorry for people who accept things the way they are without wanting to attempt more. I feel sorry for people that accept the lowest possible way of life because it is easier. I don’t like easy, easy is boring. And I settle for nothing, because settling is something people who are cowards or lazy accept as perfectly fine. I am not fine with that.

I completed the NaNoWriMo goal, with a day to spare. It was a long and exciting journey that I would have probably done sooner if I took advantage of my office type app on my phone sooner, to write as I chased around my toddler. The final week, that was how how I achieved a rate of 4,000 words a day. It was hilarious typing furiously on a phone as I chased down the baby, but I did it. Moms are master multi-taskers you know. I hit a wall, I thought the story was written 4 days left and only 36,000 words. Finally I was able to move the story further and with 2 days left, I had thought I had stalled with a mere 10,000 words left. I went back and realized that there was more story to fit in between, and in 4 hours, the 10,000 words were completed and I had hit my 50,000 goal with a day to spare. It was a long and emotionally draining journey that led me to success. I did it.  It was definitely a great feeling after how much I colossally failed at it last time I attempted it. I feel vindicated now, that I am good enough to do it. And when it is properly edited, it will be for sale on my Amazon Author page, with my other two books that you should definitely check out for $0.99. They are cheap, quick reads that I hope you will enjoy.

I am not content with that. First of all, my weight loss goal is still 6 lbs shy of my first goal, which is doing fantastically well. I am ahead of schedule on that, and every day I step on the scale, I get more motivated by this. My next goal is to start training for a marathon. I was considering starting that now, but went I stepped outside on my first day of the Couch to 5k app, the cold New England air stopped me before I even tried because I would have to run with a baby and it was way to cold for him. So when the weather warms up a little and I can find a cheap enough jogging stroller, I will start. By then, if I continue on my 10 lbs a month weight loss pattern I am currently on, I should have a few less pounds to worry about during the training process and might be able to up my game. Unless I can find an indoor track that someone can use for free with a stroller, which I would consider that too.

The point is this: we need goals in our lives to push us. We need this as people, and we especially need this as parents. We are influencing our children, and we want to show them that they can achieve whatever goals that they set out to, all it takes it hard work and determination. You would be doing a disservice to yourself and to  your children to show them that accepting the lowest possible branch on a tree of possibilities is okay. I would even dare to say that if you think this is a great lesson to teach your children, that you should reconsider whether you actually wanted to be a parent. Parents should teach their children to earn better than what they have in life, because this is how children of poverty rise above and become successful. You can’t help push people out of poverty if they grow up thinking it is acceptable and something to be proud of. We want our children to be better than us, and to have better than us. That is what differentiates just a parent from a great parent. Help them set goals, and do whatever you can to help them achieve them by pushing them to work hard for it. Teach them how to do well and work for it. Because as someone who loves the feeling of accomplishing a goal I want everyone, and especially my children, to know what that feels like and hope that it is addictive enough to keep them pushing forward in life.