INTERNET GRANDFATHER®

Wishing                                       

                                                 I was thinking about wishes as I read a recent study of young people's goals. Apparently, many young people share unrealized hopes, unachieved goals, and have begun to despair whether they will ever reach their goals. Unaccountably, they don't see the relationship between goals and efforts.

                                                 Popular songs hold that wishing will make it so, that when you wish upon a star your dreams will come true. It's nice to think like that but we all know it's not true. Wishes by themselves don't do anything for us. Merely wishing will not make anything come true. Wishing can be the start of a process, involving time and effort, that will lead to achievement of a goal but wishing alone accomplishes nothing.

                                                 Whether in our personal lives, or elsewhere, we must identify our goals, create a plan to achieve them and work according to the plan. I venture to say that most of the young people in the survey know this. So why the despair? Could it be that the particular goals seem too difficult to achieve? Or could it be that they waited until it was too late? Or could it be that the goals included in the survey are not really the respondents' goals, that, instead, they are conventional goals, such as marriage and parenthood, that they believe they should have?

                                                I'm inclined to believe that the problem includes something of all these issues and, in addition, an impatience, a desire for instant gratification, without really working for the goals. Remember, that we can achieve our goals if we really want them. In the meantime, a favorite author has given us some advice and comfort:             "The challenge is to live in the present purposefully and to lead a contented life even while particular desires remain unfulfilled. It rests in the conviction that there is a grand design to our lives . . .

                                                Be of good cheer and of good heart. Keep trying. If you do you'll achieve your goals and in the meantime you'll feel good about yourself.

7-23-07