Foregrounding

I’ve been doing some thinking about my goals for 2016. In fact, I’ve been thinking about goals, in general. In recent years, I’ve become more aware that goals fall into different categories. For example, “Buy a washing machine” is a goal that can be ticked off as achieved, on one day. You’re not going to be dealing with too many other aspects of buying the washing machine, especially after you've got it – you do your research (online or by phone), you go into the shop, you buy it, it gets delivered and installed, and you’ve achieved your goal. Tick.

But there are other kinds of goals, like “Have better boundaries”, that, although they may appear as one of your goals at the beginning of a year, will be just the start of a journey. For that first year, you have a 12-month practice run, during which you’ll have a few hits, but also a few misses. After that year, however, you have a better grasp of the matter, and you’ve learnt a couple of things about yourself and what you’re capable of. 

As part of my transitioning from one month to another, I’ve been looking through the photos I’ve taken this month. While doing so, something occurred to me, which I’m going to allow to inform my attitude and behavior for the rest of 2016: sometimes you take a photo of a panoramic view, but you place something that’s special to you in the foreground. Without your necessarily having planned it, the camera focusses on whatever you’ve foregrounded, and gives everything else a secondary focus.

One of the reasons (excuses) we tend to give for not achieving our goals is that we’re ‘too busy’, or that ‘life is too hectic’. But if you think about it, when we’re really fired up about something, nothing can keep us away from it. So if we’re allowing ourselves to be side-tracked by seductive yet mundane activities like watching tv or hanging out on social media, there must be some other reason we’re subconsciously keeping ourselves from working towards and achieving our goals. Something two life coaches have told me about is the phenomenon of ‘fear of success’. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Does this apply to you?  

So, the conclusion I’ve reached, after considering the way cameras automatically sharpen whatever you’ve placed in the foreground, is that I will stop blaming everything else in the frame of my life, all those the beautiful things that will always be there, just waiting to distract me, for my failure to achieve my goals. I will consciously foreground the things that I allege are important to me. I can still look up at the sky in awe, marvel at the clouds, and feel a sense of wonder at the vastness of the universe. But, immediately after doing so, I can focus on what I’ve placed in the foreground, whatever’s right in front of me, in the sharpest focus, remember why I placed it there, and do the necessary work towards achieving whatever I’ve set myself as a goal.

One month into the year, I’m more excited than ever about what lies ahead.