Make some goals

This is a little off-topic for aviation, but on-topic if you're a person who regularly takes a step back and looks at your life. I follow a blog by local marketer / business person / teacher Artie Issac and he had this following post on what he asks his OSU creativity students every year. (I recommend reading the whole thing, and subscribing to his blog.)

What Am I Asking For?
I'm asking for goals in four areas: business, community, family and personal.

How big a goal? Big enough that it's not easy to reach. Big enough that you might not reach it.

Big enough that it answers Ohio State's call to action: Do Something Great.

So What Goals Am I Receiving?
Without betraying any confidences, here is a complete rephrasing of some of the goals I'm receiving:

* Business: generates enough profit that I can afford the life I want.
* Community: respects and seeks me as a leader.
* Family: loves me and each other.
* Personal: ...I want to be happy and play golf.

Happy, shmappy.
Being rich, fertile, loved, and happy is important. I don't want my students to give up on these ideals.

But these aren't the goals I want them to list.

I'm looking for goals that are worthy of a headline. In The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times? Fine. The Columbus Dispatch? Fine. Field & Stream? Fine. Local suburban newspaper? Fine.

Just imagine the headline. That's a good test for your goal. In fact, write your goals as if they are news headlines. (Think: obituary.)

It sounds like a good exercise, so here are my goals as newspaper headlines:

Business: Software firm, Anecka, gets its 1000th insanely passionate client, becomes model for software development in the Mid-West

Community: Mid-West non-profit that teaches over 500 kids a year how to fly airplanes celebrates its fifth year anniversary.

Family: Pohler elected to US Congress as Independent in 2038.

Personal: Adventurer retraces Beryl Markham's 1936 solo flight from Abington, England to Nova Scotia.