Should goals take a long time?

Yes and No.

Yes, goals should take a long time because when you are aiming to achieve big goals, you often run into problems which you had not anticipated like going down with the 'flu etc.

Even small goals can take time if you are depending on other people to deliver. I and six of my martial arts students took a course on first aid back in October 2004.

We all qualified for the appropriate first aid certificate but one of us is still waiting to receive a correctly spelled certificate. His name has been mispelled twice. It is now half a year later in March 2005 and he is still waiting!

No, goals should not take a long time because big goals are made up of smaller goals which usually do not take up much time unless you are unlucky enough to run into some one who can't spell!

Even big goals can be achieved at speed if you enlist the help of an experienced and successful mentor who has reached the same goal before you.

I have been planning for several months to sign up as a seller on Ebay and put up a book for sale. Yesterday, with the help of a mentor, the goal was achieved in one hour.

Patience is valuable, whether we have a mentor or not, because it allows us to keep going until we achieve a major goal but a sense of urgency is also valuable because it pushes us to take the first and second step and so on.

We need both patience and a get up and go attitude.

The pacemaker was thought of in 1928 but it took 32 years until it materialized in 1960.

Indira Gandhi, who knew a thing or two, wrote:

"Have a bias toward action -- let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away."

We all want to see something happening now which will give us the belief and patience to wait until our final goal is reached.

Patience is also needed because we cannot control the universe.

Urgency is needed because there is a lot we can do ourselves. We just need to get on with it and not worry too much about instant results.

Instant coffee was thought of in 1934 but the idea was not realized until 1956.

It took years for the Berlin wall to come down. Both were worth waiting for.

Our goals may take us much longer than we thought they would. There is no reason to despair. Some goals have taken years and even centuries to be achieved.

All kinds of obstacles including death can arise even if we are working flat out. Let's not despair but keep on working. We may not reach our goal but can only be happy if we are working hard towards it.

Other people may reach their goals faster than we do. Perhaps they are cleverer or have to face fewer obstacles. We don't know. All we know and all we can control is what we are doing ourselves.

The only question we need to ask is: "Have I made a list of what I think I need to do to achieve my goal and have I started quickly and efficiently to deal with each task on my list?"

Probably, if we focus and take action on these tasks, we will reach our goal much sooner than we had expected.