Smart Goal Setting And The Japanese Cherry Blossom Season
If you are tired of setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound goals, then consider what the Cherry Blossom (Sakura, in Japanese) season in Japan has to teach us about spontaneity, fun and getting things done. This combination is perhaps the secret of how Nature creates such splendor and accomplishes so much in such a short time. In this article we will examine how you can apply this truly natural goal setting mechanism to your own life.
Lesson number one is that nature knows there is a time to start blooming and a time to finish. So in that sense the Cherry Blossom season is time bound. It usually begins in subtropical Okinawa in mid-January, reaching Tokyo in early April but not arriving in the northern island of Hokkaido until some weeks later. Through long experience and trial and error, Nature takes into account the climatic and geographic variations of the Japanese archipelago when preparing her plans for the Sakura season. And we humans with our fallible weather forecasting science do our best to guesstimate what she's up to!
One of the fun things about waiting for the Sakura to bloom is following the frequently updated progress of the Sakura Zensen (cherry-blossom front) in the newspapers and on television. This seems to be one of the most important roles of the Japanese meteorological service! Where I live in Tokyo it is very popular to start planning a suitable day for a Hanami (flower-viewing) picnic with a group of friends or work colleagues. Of course many of the most beautiful sakura spots are well known in Tokyo and it is not unknown for some people to reserve particularly popular viewing areas a day or so in advance. That usually means one or more members of the group being volunteered (!) to stay out overnight with a ground sheet and perhaps a sleeping bag. Getting the desired spot may indeed reward their persistence but there's still no guarantee of the weather being good, although probability is in their favor.
The beauty of the Sakura is something to behold. Every spring around March time I begin to see the small buds appearing and my spirits always rise a little even though the weather is often still cold and the sun relatively weak. They are coming! And when they finally do burst through in a shower of white tinged with pinkness, their beauty may be freely and gladly shared with others at a Hanami party, or be a very private experience. It is a time to be savored and enjoyed but most of all it is a happy time and in quieter moments I find my heart filling with gratitude for nature's magical approach to goal setting and delivering! Oh if I could do as well with my own goals each and every year.
And then it's all over in less than a week. Sure, the Tokyo blossoms will linger on for another week or two until the spring rain and wind has thinned their ranks. But it's not the same anymore. Just a few days ago families and couples and senior citizens were gazing up admiringly at gorgeous blossoms while enjoying their picnics. Now those very same spots are mostly silent and deserted. The Sakura lie trampled and muddied and dying on the ground. And soon the first mosquitoes will begin to make their presence felt for anyone who lingers long enough.
It seems to me that Nature always knows her limitations! Such that they are! When her goal is met and the fun is done, it's time to move on. As for most of the human players in this seasonal drama, there will doubtless be Sakura celebrations to plan for and enjoy in the years to come. But never again will the specific combination of circumstances and people come together as they have just done. And as the years pass and photographs and videos are sometimes shown in moments of nostalgia and reminiscing, gradually fewer and fewer of those happy and smiling faces will be there with you. So what are you waiting for? Nature is already planning next Spring's Sakura spectacle and the results will be clear for all to see. Every single goal you set can be a Sakura event - right down to the specific actions needed to bring even one action into bloom. They all count! The happiness and pleasure of yourself and potentially countless unknown others may depend on it.
Mark McClure is a Certified Life and Internet Business Coach.
His Online Home Study Course teaches how to set goals worth blooming for!
http://www.goalcreationmaps.com
Goal Setting Sakura
