Life’s Mission Statement: Is taking it by the time clock without complaining, but making the best of it obtaining the greatest happiness out of it and giving it back after the unknown prescribed years are earned.

Our goal is our personal prayer in life.
- Pius Yao Ashiara

We must grow like a tree with taproot holding us in one place.

Similarly when we build houses we must lay a solid foundation for them so that in storm nothing can destroy our base. Human beings must also have a foundation which will be the prop that will hold them in one place. The prop that will hold them in one place is their goal in life.

A goal is a plan you put in front of you and work toward its achievement with all your energy and sleepless nights. Life is a journey with few or many miles for some to travel. Some will walk through it. Some will trot through it. Some will run through it. Some will travel through it by bicycle, motorcycle, car, airplane, or ship. But all these people must be heading somewhere. They must have somewhere in mind to reach before they leave this world. They must have a destination to reach. This destination is their goal in life. Some may want to be medical doctors, some attorneys, some accountants, and so on. They can reach it through only conscious efforts and hard work - that is what life demands to reach a goal.

What is a goal?  I often ponder this question because goals have different meanings for everybody, depending on choices we make in life. Thus to ask such a question demands careful thinking. Goal is what we plan to do or become in life before death. We are traveling on the highway of life with one lane toward a specific destination and not worrying about other lanes next to us, but we focus on where we want to reach or what we want to achieve. Life asks for a result from each one of us who has lived through this world. Life is a loan on which interest must be paid. What you do with your life is your payment, and anything left for posterity is the interest you have paid on your life. You came with empty hands, but you have to do something with the hands to leave something behind you; it may be a car, a TV, an airplane, etc.

We owe the world payment and interest when we live in it. Before we were born into the world many things we came to enjoy were made by our predecessors, and so must everyone leave something behind him after he passes away.

Our goals in life came from yesterday, today, and tomorrow planning. If it is a fruit tree we planted yesterday, we make sure that we reap a good harvest off it today. What we do today must benefit children coming into the world tomorrow; otherwise our coming into this world would only be a blank trip, and there would not be a record of our visit. Travel to the cemetery and observe all the tombstones erected on all the graves, and note each and every one, but come back to society and investigate how many of these names you will find on walls, statutes, buildings, streets, monuments, and museums.

There are three most important goals in life to thoroughly investigate before getting oneself involved with any. They are goals that often bring regrets to many that must be immediately avoided before one gets hurt by any:

1. The kind of education or field one must enter;
2. Marriage: the kind of person one marries;
3. If one must have children (and how many) and how to raise them.

First, the vocation or work we do is second nature to man and must be thoroughly assessed before entering. It is daily work that becomes a task, and being uncomfortable or unhappy in it shortchanges one’s life.

After a meal, the second thing we do as human beings is work, so when we take it, we must take it with enthusiasm and joy, seeking the best in it. If I want a career, do I want to be a preacher? Do I want to be a teacher? Do I want to be a lawyer, or do I want to be a medical doctor? There are wide varieties of professions to enter, but some require more work and longer hours than others. But taking it with love, joy, and enthusiasm will make a joy of drudgery.

Second is marriage. The first question to ask ourselves is: “Do I want to be married?” Am I prepared for its work and its difficulties? When we answer the question to our satisfaction and we are confident and trust that marriage can do something for us like the purchasing power of money does for us, we then can go out and look for a good partner -not in haste but studying and investigating thoroughly the person we want to marry. Thorough studying and doing things with one another through trial and observation teaches each other qualities that are necessary for character building. At the door of marriage are smiles and grind. We want to take into it only the good things that can make it a beautiful union. Marriage can become a prison if we do not find out, early, things that will put us into its prison we may later regret. Life is a change. Circumstances change. Human beings change and conditions in marriage change and anyone in marriage may change at any time, to the chagrin of a partner.

Third are children in marriage. The question we must ask ourselves is: “Do we want children and how many of them we must have?” Will raising them become one person’s burden? Are we going to have two, three, four, six, or more, and how do we supply their needs if they are many? These are tough goals that need thorough planning before going into them. If one fails in any, he fails forever. It is only one life, and everything has to be taken with assurance to avoid difficulties in the future of one’s life.

Substance of a goal: Taking essentials of a goal is how soon we take it and at what age we take it. A basketball player must first have an ambition and desire to be a topnotch basketball player. He must go into its training with the greatest enthusiasm to be the best and a good player in the nation. He must aim at the sky to reach where no one else has ever reached.

A goal should be “think big,” “plan thoroughly well,” and work hard and aim higher. The individual must work toward the sky as he pursues his goal. He must have imaginary bow and arrow and must be able to aim this at the spot but only once to succeed.

Goals must be planned along the years: 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, until we accomplish what we want. This is shown in using three plastic containers for illustrations: Small, Medium, and Large.

We start by producing things in small quantities, then increase to medium sizes, and putting research, work, and effort bring into the largest.

Take a profession that you will like and love that will become your song every second. It might be a job you will end up doing all your life. Choose it with the eagerness of growth and it should be a job that has expansiveness in it and you will grow in it. Do not go into it because someone else made lots of money in it. Take it to be good at it and be the best in it. Before you select your goal, write the word “think” and circle it and put it in front of you as the star in the sky you are looking at.

You may wish to adopt the following creed that will guide you in your stewardship as a planner and an achiever:

1. Be a great planner among achievers.
2. Be a unique goal planner.
3. Be a goal-oriented individual.
4. Be a planner with principles and pride.
5. Be on top of your goal.
6. Be enthusiastic as a planner.
7. Be a planner that dares to do.
8. Be loyal to your goal.
9. Be a realistic achiever.
10. Be an achiever who never compromises his ideals.
11. Be a person who has resourcefulness.
12. Be always at the front of the goal.