I have always considered myself to be an ambitious person–so much so that the goals I do meet always feel small in comparison to my next feat. Naturally, I took this summer as yet another opportunity to set new goals and make progress on them. 

For as long as I can remember, in school I and many other students were always taught to make smart goals. Goal making, I learned, was the first step to being successful. So I learned to embrace and enjoy the goal making process. I would create lists, make these big, detailed plans that surely would drive me to success. Proper planning prevents poor performance, right?

Wrong. 

I have made checklists, vision boards and progress trackers. For example, this summer I used a giant whiteboard where I tracked my progress in my “big three” goals: exercising, drawing and playing guitar. 

I made a plan, but I was more excited to make the plan than I was to execute the plan. 

I consistently stuck with one of these three goals, but I did not make good on my other goals, and when I looked back to find out what went wrong, I realized something. 

There is a problem with planning. A person can plan something all day long, but these plans and announcements are futile if there is no action to back them up. I often think about people who are big thinkers–they have a lot of great ideas and are quick to announce what they are going to do. 

I am one of those people. But, again, no one cares about plans. No one cares about what someone says they are going to do until it’s done—not until people can actually see the results of all of that planning. The process of actually achieving a goal is not glamorous. It’s easy to romanticize goals but it can be hard to commit to them, which is why the first step of goal-making can lead people astray.

However, this does not mean that the entirety of the goal-making process is flawed but rather that the whole “make smart goals to achieve success” mindset should not be adopted without understanding a few key things first:

1. Goal-making can actually be counterproductive because it is possible to get so lost in the planning process that the “progress” portion of meeting the goal stalls and maybe even fizzles out.
2. If you do properly plan and follow through, know that progress is not linear. One thing I learned this summer is to prioritize consistency over perfection. Showing up every day and giving some effort is better than doing things perfectly every day because every day is going to look different. 
3. Celebrate the small goals. Seriously. 

And this one is not listed in the big three things, but it’s also important to make room for life. Life will happen. Sometimes things beyond our control will get in the way of achieving our goals when we want to and the way we want to. A week before school started, I got sick and it took me the entire week to recover. I lost weight and backslid on the progress I felt I made during the months we were off on summer break. 

Should I throw away what I did completely and call that time wasted time? Should I say that I failed? No, absolutely not.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t get the summer body I was hoping to miraculously get from moving my body more.

I didn’t become Frida Kahlo or the next great art prodigy from sketching more frequently than I usually do.

I didn’t learn how to make my guitar sound like it’s singing an entire song all on its own (yes, that is possible and it’s really difficult). 

But I did move my body more. I got stronger. I did learn a thing or two about lines of action by sketching dynamic poses. I did teach myself how to sing and play the guitar at the same time, and I can play barre chords (another hurdle).

I didn’t meet my goals–not technically. But I did make progress.

And I didn’t acknowledge that until now.

I am an ambitious person, and to any fellow ambitious people out there: I would say that I understand the pressure—and the desire to climb a taller mountain sometimes—even if it’s in the middle of scaling Mount Everest.

But I also want this to serve as a reminder to shout out the little wins. Romanticize the small checkpoints. True success only comes from trying and failing.

Just as Sir Isaac Newton stated that an object will not move unless an outside force is acting upon it, goals will not be met if there is no one actively working toward them.

To all of my fellow ambitious people, keep being that way. It’s good to be ambitious, but this is your reminder to remember to celebrate the little wins. True success comes from trying and failing first, and there is nothing wrong with that.