Brin and Cora were two very brave little elves who lived in a land before time. They had heard about a land far beyond the waters where there were magical animals, crystal flowers and all forms of treasures to sparkle your eyes and warm your heart. They had an urge, a driving burning tickling urge that niggled inside them to find and see this wondrous land across the seas for themselves. No-one in their land had ever ventured further than the outer reefs surrounding much of the coastline and their friends and family constantly cautioned them against doing so.

There were no boats in their land designed for long distance water travel, so Brin and Cora set about designing, planning and building one for themselves. As no-one had ever walked the path they were walking before, there was no-one to give them counsel. And as no-one wished to encourage their venture for fear of the dangers they would come across, there was no-one prepared to help them build their boat. Months later after overcoming many obstacles and not a few moments of despair, Brin and Cora stood on the deck of their boat stocked with supplies and waved to their friends and family as they gradually shrank and faded from view. They were on their way!

It was 8 months later after surviving harrowing storms, wild seas, dangerous sea creatures and blistering heat that they spied the outline of land on the horizon. As they edged closer they could see the glitter of gem like leaves in the forests and birds with bold fluorescent plumage began to circle their boat. "Wow", they exclaimed together, "We did it." And without ever setting foot on land, they turned around and began the journey home.

Humans are achieving machines. We are happiest when we have challenging goals we are striving to achieve. We feel good about ourselves when we have attacked and overcome obstacles.Without a goal, we have no direction, without direction, we have no fulfillment. Having a really big dream or goal keeps us going through hardship.

This is illustrated by the story of Victor Frankl who was a psychologist imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in WWII. Instead of giving in to the overwhelming despair of his situation, he decided to learn from it. He studied what was different about the 1 in 28 people who survived. He found that they weren't necessarily the fittest, the healthiest or the most intelligent people in the camp. He found that those who survived were the ones who had a purpose to live for, a dream of a large enough scope that it gave them a burning desire to overcome any obstacle.

Setting Goals

Setting and achieving goals is a valuable part of discovering who you are and what you are capable of. This knowledge builds your confidence, self-esteem and belief in what you can achieve. It also helps you to overcome a fear of stepping forward in the future. There are some guidelines that are helpful to follow if you wish to achieve success when setting and achieving goals.

Guideline 1: Set Appropriate Goals

A goal is something you strive towards, rather than something you can have right now by adopting a different mindset or choosing to feel a different emotion.

For example, it is possible to be happy right now by thinking about times in the past when you were happy, so 'to be happy' is not an appropriate goal to set yourself.

When you set yourself a goal make sure:

It is something it will take time to achieve.You can tell whether or not you have achieved it.There are steps you need to take to achieve it.