A Science I Shouldn't Fail

Goal setting is a science.

You have to  make your goals important and meaningful, make them in line with your values, make them just high enough that it feels like a dream but just low enough so that they're exactly within reach. You have to make them SMART. Lots of things go into setting goals and that makes it a science.

I've always hated science.

And I've always been bad at it. I'm not a scientific person. I'm not a person with lots of goals. I'm not really ambitious and my determination only extends as far as I can throw a baseball (in case you're wondering, not that far). Most of my dreams consist of man-eating scientists and green glob monsters that absorb my family (but that's a story for another post). Goals are easy to make for people who have dreams a little bit more realistic than that. Goals are easy for people who know what they want. For an aimless, ambition-less, undetermined person like me goals are hard to make.

That being said, the following goals are in order, not of importance or time restraints, but whichever ones I think of first.

1) Write a novel in November. I know, you might be thinking, "But haven't even written one in the last four years" or "Why November?" but I have a reason. November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's a nonprofit organization that motivates people to write a novel, of 50,000 words or more, in a month. I signed up for it two years ago, actually attempted it last year, and have decided to win it this year. This is not only a matter of pride but to prove to myself that me actually writing a book is not impossible.

2) I have 14 unread books in my room and about ten of those have been staring at me since the beginning of the summer. Seven of those books will be read before the start of 2014. (If not for the main reason that they sit on my shelves and mock me with their unread stories.)

3) Straight A's. Maybe a little superficial and pointless considering I'm a senior but something in me can't help but feel irritated at the sight of different letters on my report card. So (more SMARTly worded) when the last day of school rolls around, I will be receiving my diploma with six A's on my senior report card.

Writing these goals, I learned two things about myself: 1) I am afraid of long term goals and 2) I have more pride than I thought I did.