Covering the zoo

The difference between a stated goal and what the goal really is can be staggering. Take this simple idea from Madeleine L. Van Hecke’s book “Blind Spots“:

Maybe it will hit you that you’ve been acting as if the goal of the outing was to “cover every inch of the zoo,” rather than to “have fun and see some interesting animals.”

This stood out to me because our family went through this very thing years ago. For a while, when we’d rarely visit the zoo, we’d feel a need to cover every inch of it. That shouldn’t have been the goal, but for us it mistakenly was.

However, on one visit the zoo was offering a great deal on a season pass, so we took them up on it. From then on out, our goal shifted to just having fun and seeing some interesting animals, since we knew we’d be back again soon.

It shouldn’t have taken a season pass for us to understand that, but I’m glad it worked out well in our case. This has me thinking of other places where this might apply, as it’s always essential to understand the real “why” of everything we do.