Motivational Sayings Drive Me Nuts

The title really says it all. Lately, it feels like a bunch of people in my world have been spouting off with motivational sayings as a form of encouragement. I know they mean well. (Well, I choose to believe they mean well at least.) But they just don’t work for me.

The current winner is: Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll end up among the stars.

Well…I guess that’s technically correct. But I didn’t want to end up among the stars – I wanted to get to the moon. So even if I aimed high at some unrealistic goal, and ended up closer than I was before I started, I still failed. Right?

And it’s not comforting, to me at least, to think, “Hey, I’m closer than I was.” Cause if I’d set a more realistic goal, I could probably have achieved it instead of simply coming somewhat close to the unreachable. For me, at least, it boils down to: did you accomplish what you set out to do or not? And if not, why not?

Plus, if you didn’t hit that goal (achievable or not), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with admitting that you’re bummed. Cause it’s hard to put in a lot of work and effort and time to reach for a dream, only to fail. The consolation prize of “Well, you’re still among the stars” seems to imply that you have no business letting yourself be disappointed. And that’s just wrong. It’s ok to be sad and disappointed. You need to take the time to process those feelings, then you start working to move on, and part of that process is analyzing your goals. Why did you miss that goal? Chances are it’s because your goal wasn’t realistic. So try again, break that big goal out into littler, achievable goals, and go from there.

(I love despair.com – do you know it? Stumbled across this demotivator and it seemed particularly apt.)