Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Goals


As I get older, and notice that I used the term ‘Older’ and not ‘Old’, (I’m not exactly to that point yet, but since you mention it, I have been having some pain in my side…) I find myself making goals. As a youngster, adults and teachers were always extolling the virtues of setting goals. Of course, when you are a kid, you don’t really pay goals too much mind. I mean, what 13 year old kid is seriously saying to their parents “I’ve given it a lot of thought mom and dad, and I think we should be setting a portion of my allowance aside and investing it into a Roth IRA”?
You had one goal as a kid. Have fun. Make your friends smile and your enemies cry. And I have to say that it was a great goal to have and to continue having. But now as I get closer to my 22nd birthday, and am staring down the barrel of a knock down drag out fight with adulthood, suddenly goals are being set everywhere. They can be big ones or little ones, goals to achieve in a day, or to achieve over a lifetime. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and set a goal right away. “I’m going to eat breakfast before I go to work today.” And to me, that’s insane.
And now, as an almost 22 year old man, I am thinking more and more about that tax deferred IRA. And I seem to be having more and more conversations with my friends regarding ‘health’. Just a sporadic organic conversation where we talk about the various injuries and illnesses of the moment and what drugs we are taking to alleviate it. I always thought those conversations would be much farther down the line (like 60, 70, or 80), but nope, they have already arrived. My friend Sam from work and I were just having one the other day about back pain. Why don’t we just get it over with and subscribe to AARP magazine?
And we all seem to bitch about work, and we all agree that we sound like our parents more and more. Didn’t we all make a promise we would never be like them? I know I did, I had always made a vow that the only way I would be like my dad is my laugh and my looks. But life of course had other plans for me, and now I am an almost 22 year old man who complains about working too much but won’t turn down work, and can hold a extended conversation about drywall spackling. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t mean to put my dad down, he’s a great person, it’s just natural for a child to not want to be like their parents.
One major goal I have set for myself is to not be so isolated anymore. Too many days have wasted away with me sitting in my bedroom, reading a Philip Roth novel and ignoring my cell phone. I have always found myself to be a bit of an enigma. For being such a cheery, fun loving person I have many anti-social tendencies. I guess that’s something I want to change, so I have been going to great lengths to spend lots of time with the people most important to me. I have other goals as well:
Goal: Stop being such an asshole.
Goal: Quit giving people reasons to refer to you as an asshole.
Goal: Don’t say things that an asshole would
Goal: Get into the habit of asking yourself ‘Am I acting like an asshole?”
Goal: Eat breakfast before work.