How do you chase a moving target?
You don't lose sight of it. Period. You do whatever it takes, scramble, hustle, hot-foot it, but you keep your eye on the prize. If you lose visual, don't panic. Be still. Keep your eyes peeled for movement. Anticipate the easiest, fastest, sneakiest ways the target will try to use to escape. Be ready to move.

How do you chase a moving goal?
Keep it in front of you as much as you can. Make a regular reminder for yourself with it if you want to make it a habit that will last -- by regular I mean daily and by reminder I mean actionable items. If it's a big goal, break it down into bite sized pieces and remind yourself to deal with those pieces everyday.

• Big goal broken down into small chunks over time = success
• Small goal broken up into smaller chunks over time = big success

The goal is something you want to happen. Maybe it has to happen for something you want more to become a reality. Or maybe you want it out off the way so you can move on to better things. Whatever your reasons, hitting the goal lets you do what you want to do after it.

The goal is a target. A target is something to aim for. Or to follow, like a game animal, but in a weird theoretical way where instead of following the tracks, you connect the dots that lead to completing the goal.

• Don't confuse the goal with a task. Those are just sweepings, really, you want to keep your time free and clear, you gotta get these tasks out of the way.
• When you lose sight of the why and tangle in the how, the details can overwhelm your vision. Result: you get stuck in perfectionism, or procrastination.
• Perfect details doesn't equal hitting the goal when is the movement towards it is missing. Getting the small stuff down but then just stopping there is aimless dawdling; you're spinning in place.
• If you get tangled in perfecting the process, figuring in the how without the why, you get stuck because there's no momentum

The goal is something you want or need, something important enough to you that you want it to happen (fill a need, answer a desire), or it has to happen (deal with a problem), you so think up a plan, factoring in the essentials and the nice-to-haves, and then execute the steps to get to it.

Whether it's a clean living room, a 50,000 word novel in a month, getting debt-free, getting out from a soul-sucking bad situation or making sure that the family will be fine and worry for nothing just in case something happens to you, big or small, short term or for the long haul, we all got goals. The goal is the end point, the process is the effort taken -- take note, taken, not planned, not plotted out, but taken. Concrete steps

Why do you want it? It's important to you. It means something -- immediate relief, a stepping stone to something else, a requirement, a skill you need to acquire and master, a situation you need to resolve... Maybe you have to get it out or you die inside, imploding.

When you you want it? Time is a huge factor: having a time-line, a deadline, seizing the moment of opportunity, available for a limited time only -- your priorities affect how you break your goals down over time, and time affects how you prioritize.

How do you want it? When is good enough "good enough"? What do you mean by "perfect"?

What gets in the way? What makes the chase hard is realizing the effort it would take to make it happen, plus experiencing the boredom and the utter tedium of the process. Not only that, but it's every day (in the case of health), and often every day for a long time (raising children, growing a business, getting specialized degrees like medicine, paying off student loans, etc.)

If you see the effort and the work required to accomplish it as bigger than you can handle, you have to realize it's ALL in your head -- the goal, the understanding of what it needs to happen, and the fear. Chop it up, bet on yourself every day - and take that bet.  To get there, the goal -- whether it's an end in itself or a stepping stone to somewhere else -- must be kept in clear sight.

Using the vision analogy, if you can't see it, it's not there: you can go off-track  you get lost and drift aimlessly. Or, distracted by something more immediate -- something closer to hand, or shinier, or easier-- and you can squander opportunities, time and resources.


Success means planning, working, looking ahead to prepare for "what's next." Success is a series of accomplishments made in the pursuit of a goal. It is breaking projects down into steps and committing to each step after preparation. It is not all glee and trumpets. It is boring and tiresome and damn hard sometimes, and demands focus and discipline, not just surface attention and a few 'dabs' here and there. And you really need to understand the importance of thinking ahead.

Have you ever thought about the effects of working towards a goal has on you? What you make makes you. A baker makes baked goods, of course -- but what about his impact on his co-workers, or customers? What about his community? What about a manager? A data analyst? A writer? What you do has an impact on you as much as you have influence over it.

This phenomenon of your goals affecting you is a natural part of the process, but one that few people think about because they focus so intently on their goals. You don't get to see it so much as you feel it over time -- more confidence, more discipline, a clearer sense of who you are and what you want of yourself and from life, a feeling of purpose and direction...chasing your goals brings out what you have on the inside.

A goal disappears once it's been attained -- it becomes a done deal. Then what? You use the accomplishments stepping stones, building blocks or phases. Once a goal has been claimed, use time, be in the moment, but don't cling to it. There are new things waiting to be done, new places to explore, and new goals to go after.