Goals

Originally posted at Secular Change on Oct. 29, 2005

"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's
as simple as that." By Earl Nightingale

It is as simple as that. When I have a task to do, I usually finish it faster and better when I write down what my goal is for that particular task than when I don't.

I remember on my very first job, when I worked for an Internet Service Provider. I was hired as a technical support personnel. As a technical support personnel, my job was to go out and set up our client's computers for the Internet. That was when setting up an Internet connection was all manually done.

I hated that work, the travel was a pain with all the traffic, pollution and heat in Manila. I wanted to become a system administrator and stay in the office.

But the only people who were given the job as system administrators where those who studied computer science and knows how to program. I know a little bit of programming but I was not a computer science graduate.

So I made a decision that I will learn how to program and know everything there is to know about how to set up the servers so I can become a systems administrator.

I set up a schedule everyday and set a goal to learn everything about programming and how to use the servers within 3 months. I finished reading the book on how to maintain the server in 2 weeks, learned how to program in PERL in about a month and a half and was promoted to systems administrator on my third month on the job.

I never knew anything about goal setting before. I just happened to write down a schedule so I can keep track of where my learning. I only knew about goal setting later in my life and have finally realized why sometimes I'm successful and why sometimes I'm not.

Goal setting works. It worked for me and it will work for anybody. Write down your goals, it's as simple as that.