What Are My Goals?

GOOOOAAALLLLS!

Early on in life, my goals were pretty well established. Whenever I played sports like soccer, the goal was pretty simple: Score a goal. In school, the goal was to get the best grades possible. In high school, the goal was to get into a dating relationship. Yet, as I've become older and more independent, the goals have been harder to figure out. Sure, there's the straight-forward type goals of becoming a husband and a father, but there's other things I can't quite figure out like 'what do I want to be when I grow up?' or 'where do I want to live for the rest of my life?'.

Why are goals important anyway? Well, goals for me are important because they give me focus. Goals in my life help me understand where I'm going and what I'm doing. This clarity helps me understand areas that I need to grow in and keep me from completely wasting my time and energy on things that will not help me or make me grow in the long run.

Goals and the Theatre

David Tennant is an actor who had a big goal. Majority of people may recognize David Tennant as the man who played Barty Crouch Jr. in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie. Growing up, David was a mega-fan of the Doctor Who series. He would talk about it at school and write about it in essays all the time. His goal was to one day play the legendary Doctor himself. That is how he got his start into acting. After making a name for himself as a Shakespearean actor and appearing in the Harry Potter movie, David finally achieved his goal and played The Doctor for three seasons.

I had a goal coming in to college. My goal was to be an actor in a mainstage performance at Missouri State. It was a rough start. One of my biggest struggles in the acting world is auditioning. I auditioned to be part of the BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) programs for Acting and Musical Theatre twice and did not succeed. For the first two years I was in college, I auditioned for the mainstage seasons and never received a callback. The only way I was involved with theatre during these first two years was classes, technical work for performances to receive credit for classes, and being an actor in student directed one acts (short plays). Finally, at the auditions for the Fall 2011 mainstage season, not only did I receive a callback (which was a first for me), but I was also casted in the mainstage show The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer. After two years of struggling through auditions, I finally achieved my goal.

Now, here's something to understand about the world of theatre and auditions. The success rate of getting a callback or a role based on auditions is actually pretty low in the professional world. I may audition for fifteen professional plays and only get one callback if I'm lucky. That's just the nature of the business now. Also, success in auditions not only has to do with how well I memorize a monologue and how well I perform, but it also has to do with surface level things like appearances. If a director is looking for someone who is skinny-as-a-stick and has pointy blond hair, then I'm not going to get the part because I'm obviously not that. The average successful actor is the one who perseveres through multiple auditions and really practices their craft in their private lives as well as their professional lives. David Tennant got to be as big as he was because he practiced hard just to be able to get work as a Shakespearean actor, and then had to keep pushing forward in order to achieve his goal of playing the Doctor.

Goals for Life and Spirit

One of the ways I have tried to establish goals for my adult life is by creating a Bucket List. This is not necessarily a preparation for death, but more of a creation of objectives for me to accomplish during my lifetime. With a Bucket List, I have several goals that I can work on either in the present or look forward to completing later in life or be a work in progress throughout my entire lifetime.

For example, one of my items on my Bucket List is to watch all 45 movies on the Vatican's Film List. That can take me over the course of decades to complete and if I don't have the means or time to do so now, then I can work on it later. Another list item that I can accomplish later in life is hiking the Appalachain Trail, but at least for now I can get started by keeping my body in decent shape and going on walks on a regular basis. List items that I am building up towards at the present, which gives me something to accomplish with my free time in between retreats, is becoming fluent in Spanish, publishing a book, and producing a self-written play.

Some of my goals and Bucket List items are more spiritual in nature, including going on a pilgrimage on El Camino de Santiago. I think in the spiritual life there should always be goals, both internal and external. Since we are not perfect beings, there are areas for all of us to grow in that allow us to become closer to God. Not only that, but we are also called to help people in need, so having a goal that helps other people is also something important to have a focus on in my adult life.

Jesus Christ had a huge goal to achieve. He wanted to free us from our sins in order for us to be in Heaven with God. In order to do that, Jesus had to endure much suffering in His Passion. He had to endure abandonment, physical torture, verbal abuse, and carrying of the cross before He was finally crucified. He endured all of this in order to achieve His goal. Yet, along the way to Golgotha as He carried His cross, Jesus fell to the ground. Yet, because of the goal He had, Jesus picked himself back up and continued moving forward.

Ultimately, our biggest goal should be to follow Jesus Christ in order to be with God in Heaven. The greatest goal I have is to become a saint, and I can work towards that goal each day by relying on the grace of God to help me fulfill His will for my life. This week, Holy Week, is an especially good time for me to examine Jesus Christ's Passion and find ways for me to carry my own cross in my life. I hope to fulfill all of my goals in life as long as it is God's plan for me and it helps me follow Jesus Christ more and more each day. I want to carry out the command that He gave to the people in Luke 9:23 "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."