Goal Setting & Staying Motivated

If there is one thing that I hope you take away from my journey, it is that there is always something to strive for. Complacency can seem easy to embrace, especially after such a life changing injury. It would be too easy for me to sit around and mope about how I’ll never be strong enough to push myself in a wheelchair or that I’ll never be able to drive my own vehicle, etc. Well guess what...

Here I am pushing myself in a chair. In a few weeks, I start driving rehab to get my van setup so I can drive again. I’m looking into college courses that interest me, after telling myself that I would never pursue a life that wasn’t based around the automotive industry. 

When I first realized that my injuries weren’t going away, I made a mental list of short term, intermediate term and long term goals. Exactly how I did with my Squad Leader in Ranger Battalion. I was proud of myself for finding that real-world application for an Army skill. Something that I never knew would be so pivotal in my life. I wrote some of my medical and mental goals and a general time frame to hit them by. I truly believe that having goals to reach for absolutely keeps me on track. Once I hit a goal, I always set a new one. Some of them may seem far fetched or unobtainable at the time, but I am doing things now that never seemed possible. Back to  when I couldn’t even lift my arms or flex a muscle in my upper body. Never settling always keeps me focused on the next big break through.

The way that I organize my goals is this. Short term goals are small, obtainable goals that wouldn’t take a crazy amount of time to reach. Mostly something that is right there hiding behind a mental block or new apprehensions. Intermediated goals are grander in size and can usually be obtained within a year or two. Long term goals are the big ticket items that usually require a lot of smaller goals to be met before hand. Usually 5 or more years out or just a grand goal that will be hard to meet.

If I had to write out my goals from my first thoughts in the hospital, it would probably look something like this...

Short:

1. Lower my medication list.

2. Learn to accept help.

3. Make it to therapy at least 3 times a week.

4. Spend less time in bed.

5. Learn to feed myself.

6. Find my faith again.

7. Be happy.

Intermediate:

1. Get out of the hospital.

2. Get an accessible house.

3. Get my own wheelchair.

4. Have Kass learn my care.

5. Get a handicap accessible vehicle.

6. College / Trade school.

7. Learn to fish again.

8. Get back to shooting.

9. Go camping. 

10. Drive cross country 

Long:

1. Full recovery.

2. Medical trials.

3. Get in a manual chair.

4. Learn how to drive yourself.

5. Buy a dream lake house.

6. Buy a dream van / truck.

7. Be independent.

8. Get back on a motorcycle.
9. Marriage / Family.

10. Find a career that I am passionate about.

As you can see, my list probably had a lot of generic goals that you may have or may have had. All that my injury did was force me to redefine some goals or move them into different categories. You can also see that I have crushed a lot of these goals and that I’m creeping my way into these long term goals... well, that means that my goals need to adapt! However, my new list is something that I’ll keep between me and God...

Obviously this is a small example of my aspirations. The list was and still is huge. There’s a lot of stuff that isn’t on the list that has helped get me to where I am now. 

“A goal should scare you a little, and excite you A LOT” - Joe Vitale

“If you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time.”– Source unknown

Stay motivated! 

God Bless!