more coffee

For the past six months or so, I’ve completed weekly reflections. It’s part of a wider set of habits I’ve taken on since the New Year. One of the questions on my reflection sheet is “What is your goal for the week ahead?”. I’ve often struggled to fill that portion out. At times I’ll be overly ambitious – shooting for the moon and content to land within a light year or two. Other times I’ll have just enough energy to put “live for another week” as the goal.

But what’s the deal with goals, anyway? Let’s ignore the implicit rule that they’ve got to be something that brings us to the next stage in our lives. Or something that lies as a reward for a great amount of time and effort. Why do we spend so much time thinking, crafting and reaching for them – letting them become the only goal markers in life? If I need to make another SMART goal for my job I might pull my hair out.

But okay. Rant aside, I get it. If nothing else they are useful as markers. Life doesn’t give us signposts so we have to make our own. Using that same analogy, the real problem I have with goals is how far apart we tend to space those signposts. I mean I’d feel pretty lost and hopeless if the dirt road I was travelling along didn’t have another signpost for hundreds of miles.

This week as I filled out my weekly reflection, the goal I set for the week ahead was just to “have more coffee”.

Whenever you happen to read this, I’d encourage you to identify what your “more coffee” is for the week ahead. Plant that next signpost a few yards away. You deserve a break.