I’m getting slightly better at finishing off my monthly goals.
And I must attest it mainly to the negative ramification aspect of the goals.
For October 2010 I stated the negative ramification of failing to complete all four goals was:
I was asking my brother and roommate how to keep accountable this month and I randomly spurted out this gem:
“If I don’t accomplish my goals this month, I’ll give away my bike to this particular crack-head bum I see on the street corner all the time.”
I met this particular bum doing The Homeless Experiment and personally know this guy is a huge druggy and alchy. I will be DAMNED before I give that (insert lots of derogatory words here) bum gets my mountain bike. I ride that bike all the time and love it (I actually bought it from Lance Armstrong’s bike shop here in Austin)!
So there you have it. If I don’t have those four goals crossed off on Oct. 31st, 2010….I’ll give my beloved bike away to that bum.
On October 29th I worked furiously all day to make sure I’d be done with work in time for the arrival of guests in town. It would also be Halloween, so many festivities were in store.
I then gasped in horror as I noticed the LAST GOAL on my October 2010 Goals was not going to be completed. CRAP!
I immediately went through the list of excuses I could give on this blog (or maybe slyly avert the subject altogether) in order to not really give away my bike. However I also thought to myself, “I’ve officially procrastinated work again, and surely this weekend I’ll be in a bad mood because I didn’t finish it all…why don’t I just stop complaining and DO IT?”
I had till Oct. 31st to finish this.
However the last goal “Redesign NevBlog” involved getting a bunch of weird formatting errors solved on my template, adding custom sidebars to WordPress and all sorts of stuff I really didn’t know how to do. A programmer would be needed. I immediately started calling around, and fortunately I got Ray of WiredHive to come out to my apartment on SATURDAY AFTERNOON.
During the 6 hour period I spent with a programmer, my friends went out for brunch, drank mimosas, visited places in Austin, went to the pool and hot tub….and I was sitting inside with a programmer.
Was I happy about this? No….because I was missing out on fun. But YES….because I was accomplishing what I said I’d do.
I ABSOLUTELY 100% KNOW I would NOT have made such an effort had I not had a negative ramification linked with that goal.
October 2010 goals completed? CHECK!