There is a saying that the best goals lie on the edge of what is achievable. A goal is no good if it is not reachable. The problem with me and goals is I go overboard. This year I set out to read 35 books. I felt that that was a good number that would give me time with my kids, time to work on my business, time to play video games, watch movies, and a whole host of other things I wanted to do. Tonight I finished my 70th book of the year and there is a realistic chance I can get to 100. That is far past 35 and I do feel I have neglected a few things (mainly video games).
There is a program for the children called 1000 books before Kindergarten. It is silly to start it now as I was reading to the children well before this, but I didn’t see the point. 1000 is so many. It is one of those goals that seems overwhelming but really isn’t but it is still intimidating. So, I simply never bothered recording anything.
I could backlog the books we finished and I might with a few of the longer ones but for now I am reading them the shorter books we have. The ones more their speed, and I am not limiting it to what we have. Today I got 16 books from the library. We also finished our 37th book of the week today. That puts us on pace to finish the program in 135 days.
While 1000 books before Kindergarten seems like an unreachable goal it is very easy when you break it down. Children begin Kindergarten at the age of five years old. That means from birth until the start of Kindergarten a child has 1825 days. Now I think you see how small a goal 1000 books before Kindergarten is. It takes roughly two minutes to read the average board book to a child and around 10 minutes max for a picture book. It is very easy to read one book a day.
If a person were to follow the recommendation of reading 30 minutes a day to their child they could easily wipe the 1000 book goal off the map in 100 days. It is a very achievable goal. The problem is we weren’t counting and while it would be easy to input all we’ve done thus far by looking at library records and the books on our shelves I want to earn it day by day. The only problem is that for me goals become obsessions and all the long term planning goes out the window. It doesn’t matter that we have three years to whip this goal. I want it out of the way as soon as it can be dealt with.
David Huzzard Writes 