TARGET PRACTICE

I am yet to see a person who is hungry and wants to eat but instead goes out into the rain and starts to jump all over instead of either heading to the kitchen to prepare his/her meal or even to a restaurant where meals are already prepared and waiting. I am yet to see a football team that wants to win against its opponents so eagerly yet chooses to score as many goals as it can into its OWN net instead of that of the opposing team. I am yet to see a person who believes that the very best way to drive a car is only backwards all through.

Do the above scenarios make any sense?

You may say no, yet some of us live out our lives in literally those fashions. We say we have dreams (and very big ones at that) of our future yet we are busy wasting time dancing in the rain, scoring against ourselves or even driving backwards all day; instead of taking planned and proper steps towards achieving those dreams.

This life is simple though. If you don't have a target, you can't aim.

We can't afford to live this life carelessly and yet expect to just somehow walk into that dream we are fantasizing about or the hope we have concerning tomorrow. How can you say you are aspiring to be a doctor or a pilot or an accountant or an administrator or anything else worthy of note and you don't have plans to go to school? How can you say you plan to be very stable financially in your life and you don't plan to learn about money? How can you say you will have one of the best marriages on the planet and you don't make any effort to learn and know how to treat your husband or wife?

We must all understand that having achievable targets is a top priority if we must achieve anything. We must also understand that it's not just enough to have a target, because you may have a target and still be missing the main mark because your aim is poor or your mind is blurred. We must understand that hitting the right mark takes plenty practice.

Ronaldo and Messi today are not two of the world's top footballers out of the blue. They both knew their targets but also constantly practiced their aims on those targets. They didn't just wish being at the top would just happen because even they knew that goals are like dreams and that we need to wake up and face reality. Reality means being able to hit the right target and to do that means constant practice, practice that will take your time, your effort and possibly even your resources. If you're not ready, you won't hit anything.

It's really not enough to dream. You need to get your dream into focus and begin to prepare yourself gradually on how best to get to it. And that takes serious practice. You should pause a while and ponder about this.....