So as to get more insight on how I, too, could achieve my dreams, I bought my own copy of the autobiography when we broke for a long holiday at JKUAT in December 2007. I re-read the book during that long holiday and again in 2010. While re-reading it, I was inspired by the following words of Bill Clinton in the prologue of the autobiography:
When I was a young man just out of law school and eager to get on with my life, on a whim I briefly put aside my reading preference for fiction and history and bought one of those how-to books: How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, by Alan Lakein. The book's main point was the necessity of listing short-, medium-, and long-term goals, then categorizing them in order of their importance, with A group being the most important, the B group next, and the C the last, then listing under each goal specific activities designed to achieve them. I still have that paperback book, now almost thirty years old. And I'm sure I have that old list somewhere buried in my papers, though I can't find it. However, I do remember the A list. I wanted to be a good man, have a good marriage and children, have good friends, make a successful political life, and write a great book.[1]On analyzing the life of Bill Clinton, I have realized that he achieved all those life goals that he set when he was a young man. He has been a good man; he has been happily married to Hillary Clinton; he has had wonderful friends around the globe; he became President of the United States and led his country to peace and unprecedented prosperity; and he wrote a compelling autobiography that stirred me to action.
What I find wise about Bill Clinton is the way he put "being a good man" at the top of his goals. I find that wise because at the end of our lives, what matters is whether we were good people. Don't you agree?
Inspired by Bill Clinton, I also penned my life goals in 2010. I basically copied Clinton's goals, then added several more. And when I publicly shared the goals on email and social media in 2015, some people criticized me for setting many goals. Even my senior brother Bob Njinju thought my goals were too many to be attained; he advised me to focus on one.
Coming to think of it, Bill Clinton wasn't that stupid to set as many life goals as I did. He was smart enough to focus on a few he had the ability to accomplish. That's why he succeeded in attaining them. So I have also decided to focus on a few life goals. In addition to being a good man, making great friends and having a wonderful family, my other goals are becoming a gifted writer and a talented hymn-composer.
Over the past three years, I have been working hard at becoming a gifted writer by reading a lot and practising the writer's craft. Even with all that diligence, I still feel I have a long way to go in becoming a great writer. But I am nonetheless impressed with the progress I have made so far because these days, I no longer plagiarize the writings of other authors.
As of becoming a talented hymn-composer, my focus is on composing hymns with tuneful melodies and inspiring lyrics - the kind that will leave people humming them as they commute to work. So far, I have produced five hymns which haven't been as great as I'd have loved them to be. The hymns are available in the videos' section of this blog.
From my experiences of composing hymns, I have found it hard to come up with tuneful melodies and even harder to come up with lines that rhyme. Some people have complimented me for writing in excellent English, but the fact that I have trouble coming up with rhyming lines for my hymns leads me to believe that I am still not a master of the Queen's language. I however believe that with focus and with God's help, I will eventually evolve into the great hymn composer I am aspiring to be.
Recently, I watched on TV a choir of more than a hundred people sing the wonderful old hymn "Joy to the World". And as I listened to the choir, I felt envious of Isaac Watts, the composer of that hymn. Isaac Watts must have been bursting with pride, as he reposes in heaven, to see his hymn being sang by a prominent choir. Such is the kind of achievement I'd love to attain.
My dear reader, I beseech you to also set life goals. And don't make the mistake of coming up with too many life goals. Select a few that you have the ability to achieve, and then focus on them. The keyword here is "focus". Remember sun rays are harmless but when focussed with a magnifying glass, they can start a fire. It pays to focus.
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[1] I have extracted this passage from the prologue of My Life by William J. Clinton, published in the United Kingdom in 2005 by Arrow Books.
RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed this story on setting goals, you might also enjoy another one I wrote last year on "Imitation is Limitation". Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
