Scaredy Cat

Chapter 11: Goals

DARE TO BE GREAT – Step 10: SET YOUR GOALS

Clear your mind, for the moment, of theories, beliefs, insecurities, and probability factors. Now is the time to dream. On a blank piece of paper, write the phrase, "Life Goals" and underline it. Now list, in point form, everything your heart desires. Make sure your wish list includes how you'd like to look, what kind of relationships you'd like to have, what kind of work you'd like to do, what kind of hobbies you'd like to try. Cover the categories we've dealt with before – the physical, mental, emotional, financial, social, and spiritual. Make it as detailed a picture as you can make it – a detailed picture of the person you would be, if only you weren't afraid.

Don't just think in terms of doing – some of your goals might require the courage to stop doing -- to stop putting up with an abusive relationship, for example, or stop saying 'yes' to the door-to-door salesmen. Your goal might be climbing a mountain or making a million dollars, bungee jumping or memorizing the complete works of William Shakespeare. Think big. Anything is possible.

Now put a check mark beside anything that you've already achieved, and rank the rest, as usual, by degree of difficulty. These are your life dreams, dreams that will require change, action, and courage. These are the goals you will work toward using the skills you've learned in the Morris Method of Creative Risk-taking! You're ready, fledglings, now spread your wings and fly!  DARE TO BE GREAT!

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PHYSICAL - touch my toes - earn a brown belt - leg press 150 pounds - become a vegetarian - live to be 100

MENTAL - learn Chinese - write a history text for teens

EMOTIONAL - learn to love my height - be rude to a pushy salesclerk - fall in love, all the way - raise a child or two

FINANCIAL - buy a house - replace the money I took out of savings - invest in original art (woman with chicken?)

SOCIAL - audition for community theatre - join a book club - travel to Asia with just a knapsack

SPIRITUAL - live gently on the planet - meditate - be unafraid to die

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The shuttle bus was thumping along a dry dirt road in the outer reaches of Algonquin Park; dust was billowing in through the window someone had opened, and it was making the cigarette smoke problem worse instead of better. Twice Everly looked deliberately at the smoker, but the woman seemed oblivious to the discomfort she was causing others. An older man at the open window snicked his tongue in annoyance and slid the panel of glass closed again. The dust settled slowly, tiny particles swirling into the cigarette smoke, illuminated by the sunlight as it drifted aimlessly around the bus. Finally the woman finished puffing. She tossed the stub on the floor, ground it out with a twist of her shoe, and opened her own window for some fresh air, causing a sudden gust of air to blow hairdos askew on the two women in front of her. Those women clapped their hands to their heads and looked at each other in annoyance, but said nothing.

Everly covertly inspected the passengers on board the bus. The blonde smoker was glitzy, probably in her thirties, with pink shorts, big hair and showgirl makeup. The women in front of her were perhaps ten years older, mousy and nondescript. A few seats ahead of them a large and matronly woman in a purple jumpsuit flipped through the Dare To Be Great book, cramming, Everly supposed, so as not to be caught off guard. Across from her a young woman no more than twenty stared out the window. (She had obviously not yet read Dr. Morris's book -- she was wearing a beige sweater and skirt, the penultimate fashion faux pas for the courage seeker.) There were a handful of men -- chinless and bespectacled, bald and stocky, thin and anemic, but they were outnumbered by the women.