Motivational Quote #16

"Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures."--James Cash Penney

Sometimes you get lucky and you stumble upon great quotes without really trying. Such was how I found this one. And with the coming of the new year and the thought of new goals, this quote is perfect.

Before sharing my thoughts on Penney's quote, however, I will have to admit my ignorance. I did not know that James Cash Penney--the son of a farmer and Baptist minister--founded J.C. Penney. Now, why that wasn't obvious to me, I don't know, but it showed me once again the amazing power of the Internet when I popped his name into Google and was led to a site about famous Missourians.

Now let's talk about Penney's quote. The topic of goals comes up often in my articles for Writer2Writer. Many of those articles discuss creating to-do lists and breaking down your goals into smaller, more manageable chunks.

But here Penny focuses on the reverse, praising the benefit of long-term goals. Just yesterday, I set my goals for the first quarter of 2009. I have a lot planned, even though I know I might need to make some changes if I have to return to working outside of my home.

Every week I write a to-do list based upon my long-term goals. This helps keep me focused on the big picture and allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment when I've checked off one of the items on my to-do list.

Do I beat myself up when I don't accomplish it all?

No, and this is exactly what Penney is getting at with his remarks. Having that long-term goal in sight allows us as aspiring authors not to get bogged down when by the end of the week we haven't accomplished everything we planned to. Unexpected things happen: our children get sick, we have to work an additional shift, the car breaks down, we're just too darn tired to handle one more thing; you name it, it can happen.

But by setting S.M.A.R.T. long-range goals, we don't need to worry about it when the unexpected happens.

To find out more about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, visit my article at the Writer2Writer website. You'll find it here.

Speaking of successful long-range goals, in 2002, the J.C. Penney Company celebrated one hundred years in business. The company is still one of America's largest retailers.