Sticking to Your Objectives

On Sunday morning I watched a news story on CBS about an amazing relationship between an elephant and a dog. The story took place at an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. As the reporter remarked, "An elephant sanctuary in Tennessee? That sounds like a story in itself!"

This sanctuary rescues elephants that are no longer wanted or have been abused. When an elephant arrives at the sanctuary, it immediately bonds with another elephant. The elephant in this story, Tara, did not bond with another elephant; she bonded with Bella, a stray dog which had shown up at the sanctuary. They go everywhere together. Last year when Bella got sick and had to stay in the sanctuary office for three weeks, Tara stood outside the entire time, waiting. To appease Tara, Bella was carried out to see her. Since then, this unusual twosome go all over the sanctuary together.

Evidently, CBS had reported on this story previously and the report that I watched on Sunday was a follow-up piece because the owners of the sanctuary referenced the first story and what had happened after it aired. "After that story aired," remarked the wife of the husband and wife owners, "we were bombarded with calls. We had request after request about Tara and Bella. Disney even called and wanted to do a film about them starring either one or both."

"Disney!" the reporter exclaimed. "So what happened with that?"

"We thought about it," she continued. "Our reason for having this sanctuary is to give the animals here an opportunity to live life for themselves and to be the creatures that they are rather than be performers for the entertainment of humans. For them, just being who they are has intrinsic value. That is our goal with this sanctuary. We turned Disney down."

The reporter was stunned, and so was I. They turned down Disney. They turned down a great deal of money. Most amazingly, they stuck to their objective.

Sticking to an objective is not easy. It's easy to forget your objective. It's easy to be swayed from your objective by lucrative offers. It's easy to rationalize out of your objective by the temptation of an offer. Diverting from your objective is much easier than following through on it.

That's why you set objectives. Objectives state what you want to accomplish. They require a great deal of thought to formulate. Once written, they are a ready reference and best when reviewed consistently. They help you maintain your focus. They keep you on the path toward achieving your goals.

The elephant sanctuary stayed on its path by following its objectives.

How are you doing following your objectives?