Goals and Goal Setting


We all need goals, both personal and professional!

Think of it this way, without a goal, you are like a message in a bottle, just floating about with no direction or destination. A goal can be thought of as a desired result of something you what to have, to become, or to experience.

Goals and Goal Setting

Think of it this way, with a goal, you are like a message in a bottle, just floating about with no direction or destination. A goal can be thought of as a desired result of something you what to have, to become, or to experience.

I was recently able to complete one of my own personal goals, –paddling the entire length of Virginia’s James River. The James is one of the longest rivers in America that begins and ends in the same state. I did this with my friend Scott; we completed the final leg of our expedition on October 26, 2014, navigating all passable sections of the 340-mile river from the Allegheny Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.

About two years ago, sitting around a campfire on some nameless rocky campsite, we hatched our plan, or our goal, of paddling the entire river. Until that time, we had limited ourselves to fishing, paddling, and camping here-and-there in-between boat ramps and access points.

It would have been great if we were able to do this in one continuous journey, but we both have bills to pay, chores to do, and other obligations to meet. We completed the trip over a good number of extended weekends. Actually, overall, we have been doing these river camping trips for nearly 20 years.

Some folks say that the journey is more important than the destination.

For the journey, we experienced incredible fishing, awe-inspiring scenery and wildlife viewing, camping out under the Milky Way, (and the rain), hot muggy days with temperatures over 100 degrees and frosty cold mornings below freezing. We also have accumulated countless really awesome stories of those experiences and the interesting folks we have met along the way. Those stories just get better and better after every telling.

For the destination, we received a very nice Certificate of Achievement from the folks over at the James River Association and now have some awesome bragging rights for doing something that very few folks have ever done.

There will be more on this topic later.

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