Teen to Adult

Hi everyone! My name is Pedro and I’ll be posting here at Teen to Adult every now and then. But who am I and why in the world am I doing this? Don’t worry about that right now, let’s just get to what really matters: YOU, the fine reader of this text.

Have you read “Defining Goals”? Have you tried to define a goal? Of course you did! We all do and we’ll keep doing it because that basic premise is part of our nature.

After having defined so many goals in my life – not the most important but that’s another topic – and after having tried and failed on so many of them I concluded that each one of us has two selves:

• - The one with dreams and ambitions to fulfill. This is your True Self. Logically, if you don’t know your dreams and ambitions then you don’t know your True Self. But don’t worry! He exists… you just weren’t aware of him;
• - And the other one which acts on the real world trying to achieve those dreams and ambitions. This is your Mirrored Self. He is like a raw diamond waiting to be carved by your True Self.

Have you ever felt happy? Have you ever felt sad? Happiness and sadness are the products of this never ending craft. You get happy if you get near your True Self and you get sad if you don’t… it’s this simple.

If you don’t know your True Self then go on and discover him. He’s there… just look out for the things that make you happy and turn away from the stuff which makes you sad. He’ll be there to embrace you. Getting your Mirrored Self closer to your True Self is the ultimate goal… go on and grab it!

Sincerely yours,

Pedro

What a great topic this time!

Goals are a key part of everyone’s day to day life. They are everywhere, and are usually either long or short term.

Sometimes they are imposed on us by parents, bosses, etc. Most times, we end up defining them ourselves… From the moment someone asks us what do you want to be when you grow up? They are asking us what our goal in life is! And that is not an easy answer! We answer “firefighter” or “astronaut”, because at the time it’s obvious we haven’t set that big a goal yet!

Actually, the answer to what do you want to be when you grow up? is the big goal in our lives! After all, we keep growing up all the time. As such, that big goal keeps changing as we define ourselves in the world.

On setting goals

This is obviously the easy part! But don’t be fooled…

We can divide goals into 2 big groups:

• - Short term, I have to finish homework till Thursday
• - Long term, I want to learn the guitar to a good level

And we should probably think about a few things when defining a goal:

1. Is it achievable?
2. Is it long term or short?
3. Is it important?
4. What if I can’t reach the goal?

These are self explanatory, but I probably forgot a few not so obvious ones. A goal that is clearly defined is a big step in the direction of achieving it. Unrealistic goals are bad in the sense that you won’t give your best if you know it won’t be reached, even if you do give your best.

On achieving goals

This is the tricky part!

Achieving a goal depends obviously on a few things:

• - Difficulty
• - How hard we work towards it
• - Unpredicted events

Working towards a goal is not usually easy! Sometimes its a good idea to find incentives, especially if the goal isn’t that motivating by itself. Rewarding our achievements by going to a fancy restaurant, for example, is a way to do this. If our goals involve other people, thinking about rewarding them, even in a symbolic way, upon completion of the goal, is a very good incentive for them to meet the goals.

Setting intermediate goals, especially if the main one is a long term one, or very hard, is a very good idea as well!

I Hope your goals will be better and easier to achieve after reading this!

João

Truth is the single, most important factor about improving our life.

Why is that?

It’s simple, really… When you have a problem, the first step you have to take to solve it… Is to admit you have it! Think about it. How many of us shy away in the presence of something wrong in our lives, only to let it live there, bothering the back of our mind. Of course we want to solve it, but instead we usually “leave it for later” or say/think “it’s not that bad”.

That’s why truth is so important, and we are only scratching the surface. How can you be truthful to someone else, if you aren’t sincere to yourself?

That takes us to the opposite of truth: the Lie. Lying usually seems the easy way out. It is easy, most times, but the thing is, it isn’t a way out! Every time you lie, there is a chance (greater than you think), that it will be discovered. If it is, your usually left in a much worse situation than if you had told the truth in the first place.

Still on the topic of lies, a lie you tell to yourself is always discovered! Because somewhere in your mind you know it is a lie.

Example:

You say to yourself “I’ll do the homework in the evening”, when you never did, never do, and never will work on the evenings. It’s a classic error… It’s much better to say “If I don’t do the homework now, I won’t do it in time”. It’s another topic altogether if you go through and do the homework or not, but at least you accepted that there is a problem!

This extends to most things in life, not just homework. I had been planning to write this article for a long time, but only today did I admit to myself the problem! Now I took the next step and wrote it, but “taking the next step” is stuff for another article!




João