One of my main goals for the year has been to write at least one blog post everyday. I’ve written four or five and it’s already the 11th. I’m 6 behind only two weeks into the new year. This has made me ponder how “cheating” effects goals. It’s one thing to completely shrug off a goal, but it’s something entirely different to care so much about the goal that you cheat in order to achieve it.
Technically, I have already failed on my goal to blog every single day. I did not blog once in the past four or five days. However, did I still fail if I write two blogposts a day, and change the dates so it seems that I blogged every consecutive day? The ethical lines are somewhat blurred. I didn’t technically write a post every single day; however, the dates will show that I did if anyone looks back at the blog in five years and skips over this post.
I’ve been thinking about this for days, and here’s my conclusion: cheating to accomplish a goal is better than failing. I’m sure there are variable degrees for how this would be taken. Is it better to cheat on a test to get an A? Is it better to pay off a referee than to lose the game? I’m not really sure how I feel about those scenarios, but for my personal goal of writing a blogpost each day, I feel okay cheating. I’m not really cheating anyone but myself – and at the same time, if I start writing two posts each day until I catch up to my desired pace, then I will be back on track. Maybe it won’t be cheating 100%, maybe only 90%, but it is still cheating.
I still feel that I would be doing a disservice to myself if I gave up on the goal.
Changing Goals
Is it cheating if you change your goals? For example, what if my goal was to write 365 posts this year instead of write one each day. My original goal has failed, but this new similar goal could still be a resoundinguccess. The spirit of the original goal was to blog every day so I would get into a mood of constant creation. Perhaps this new goal will still achieve what I am after; however, I still can’t get it out of my head that either the first goal has failed, or that I am somehow cheating to attain it.
Personal goal setting is awesome when you achieve them. Personal goal setting is difficult when it’s one extra area of your life where you can fail.