Change Your Goals

May brought my wife her first Mother's Day. And I'm not one to shy away from any chance to celebrate. But this holiday was not about me. So, on May 10th, I spent the day celebrating my wife who was desperate to get out of the house for an adventure. 

After gifts, pictures and breakfast in bed, we drove to Sedona, Arizona. This should have been a two hour drive from our home in Scottsdale. But our daughter helped turn it into three. She's a pretty demanding back seat driver that can convince me to stop for dirty diapers and a hunger cry. 

Regardless, we made it to the great outdoors. But we quickly found the trails and each of the parking lots shut down for the pandemic. While I know many parks have been closed nationally, I was surprised by the extreme limits to be in place for such an open air location. Regardless, my wife was having an amazing time.

You can see a lot of the red rock and beautiful scenery of Sedona from the car. So, we adventured on as we kept rolling past plenty of yellow tape grounds that we'd need to visit another day. We weren't the only ones to have this plan as the few open trails had full parking lots and plenty of activity.

We didn't give up, and we eventually found three different spots we were able to stop. They weren't crowded, there was plenty of parking and the views were exactly what we ventured to see. 

Ayfer was thrilled with our day, because she adjusted her expectations of what our Sedona adventure would bring. Upon seeing all the yellow tape, she was happy to view the scenery of the drive from the car. And she was thrilled to take a few photos where we were able to jump out for a quick picture.

The coronavirus era continues to effect our mentality and level of day-to-day excitement. But instead of writing one more article with the author telling you to stay positive. I'm simply going to say, don't. There's no way around it, this new situation everyone is facing is in many ways not enjoyable. You don't need to pretend that it is. Other than the germaphobes, I doubt anyone enjoys wearing a mask to the grocery store and washing their produce when they get home.

Instead, I'll encourage you to adjust your expectations. Being comfortable with not having a single trail open in Sedona helped us celebrate the few stops that we were able to stretch our legs and snap a photo. Rather than be disappointed with the yellow tape, we can all change our expectations. We set the bar at being able to pull the car over at some point and view the beautiful scenery. Since it always feels good to achieve a goal, we deemed our day successful and had fun in our own way. 

The business lesson is the same. If a goal becomes unattainable, it doesn't do any good to give up on your efforts. In life and your career, there are times you will be required to adjust your goals in order to continue to chase some level of success. Failure is not possible as long as you keep going.

As we all learn to better understand the events happening in the United States, change is inevitable. We must keep going. Achieving success matters. Black lives matter. Never giving up matters. Keep going!

And to all the mothers out there, I hope each of your expectations were hit on some level to enjoy your own Mother's Day. You each deserve it. Happy belated Mother's Day!

-Jon Markwardt