If you want to accomplish your goals you need to eat more SPAM. Now I could take that phrase many direction. The first direction is obvious. Eating SPAM is completely disgusting, completely bad for you, really cheap, and easy to consume. It is much like eating a live frog in the morning. Once you get that done, you can probably handle anything. This is why I have chosen to start eating steel cut oatmeal every morning. I hate oatmeal. However, the benefits are hard to ignore. Nutrient dense, good fiber, easy to prepare, and I can mix different things in it. One of my goals to eat more healthy can surely be accomplished by adding this to my diet. So I have forced myself to eat this goop for 16 mornings in a row. The humorous thing about the concept is I now actually enjoy my morning bowl of oatmeal. Sure takes the stress out of eating breakfast.
However, I am not talking about food or about eating breakfast. I am encouraging you to eat SPAM because I believe you have to do so to accomplish your goals. As any self help book will teach you, in order to accomplish your goals you must break the goal down into smaller parts. These smaller parts are referred to as objectives. An objective is only effective, and only really accomplished if the objective is SPecific and Measurable – SPaM. So to accomplish goals you need to wake up everyday and consume spam. You will only achieve what you measure is a phrase I have heard before and I think it is actually true.
A note about goals. Goals are interesting concepts and I have spent a lot of time analyzing them. I do not think goals themselves should ever be specific, in fact, the should be as nebulous as possible and as hard to reach as you can imagine. I dare say that the more lofty the goal, the more motivation you will have to reach for it. This goes against natural thinking. Many will say – set your goal slightly out of your reach so that you will not be discouraged and have some success. I think those people are confusing goals with objectives. When I was teaching my son to walk – I would place objects slightly out of his reach so that he had to struggle to get there. Each time he did I would increase the objective – however the goal all along was for him to become mobile all the time. To him standing and walking around probably seemed a very lofty concept indeed – but that is absolutely what he wanted. He wanted to walk around like everyone else.
A goal should be near impossible. For example, which is the better goal? I need to lose 20 pounds before July 1 or I want to look great in a bathing suit when I go to the beach this summer. The later is far more inspiring and I can even visualize it. Never mind that it is impossible! Why do you think all the major religions have survived for so long and have so many followers? Perhaps it is because they set lofty, unobtainable goals that lift the human spirit and get them to follow a course of objectives to get there! I can dwell with God in Heaven, I can reach Nirvana, I can become one with the Universe, I can win a Nobel Prize! All these system have a lofty goal with a series of steps that you have to take to even get close to achieving it. We are happy to be on the path of achievement – after all we are human (yes, I just alluded to science as a religion – hey this is my blog post)!
So as part of your 365 commitment, I encourage you to create some lofty goals and write them down. The should be almost impossible and really “pie in the sky.” Think big. When you are done with that – you can come up with a series of objectives to get there. You may not be able to come up with the entire path – but you can certainly think of the first two. Once you have an objective or two figured out you are ready for the most important step. You need to make those objectives specific and measurable. For example, if my goal is to look great in a bathing suit then I need to think of some objectives. Maybe one of them is to lose weight. Well, lose weight is not specific and you cannot measure it. So I will modify that objective to say something like – I am going to lose 20 lbs by July 1. Now I have something I can measure and it is really specific. Add a few more objectives with this one and you are well on your way to achieving the impossible.
Once you have a lofty goal, and measurable objectives to get there then you need to actually track the measure. The measure is really important and it should be something you look at everyday. In effect you need to eat the SPAM. Just like I wake up every morning and have my bowl of oats – I need to also look at my measure. If you want to save money? Look at how much money you have accumulated everyday! You want to serve others? Count how many people you actually helped yesterday. You want to exercise more? Then find out something you can report on. A good measure will withstand the test of time and keep you motivated and represent your progress.
Guy Reams (68)
365 Member
Eat SPAM
