Nothing makes us feel better than waiting for ‘tomorrow’, or ‘the day after’, ‘next month’ or even ‘next year’ to start something challenging. This wait leads us nowhere. A similar procrastination process is what we are following when it comes to volunteering activities.
A recent Gulf News survey revealed that only 11 per cent people are engaged in frequent volunteering, 9 per cent of us do it sometime during the year, 43 per cent do it rarely and 37 per cent are yet to start. Aren’t these numbers astonishing in spite of repeated efforts by the government to encourage volunteering?
Dubai has launched multiple volunteer programs. So where is it not working out? I pause here to stress on the importance of goal setting and delving into a habit. It’s a common misconception, that habits and goals are more or less the same thing. The difference between habits and goals isn’t just semantic. Each requires different forms of action. For example, if we want to clean a beach, we could either set a goal to completely clean it within a year, or we could make it a habit to spend 30 mins every day for the clean up.
To achieve any goal successfully, a regular habit is mandatory. Learning to follow a habit rigorously exemplifies discipline too. Goal setting is extremely important in life - a good tool and logical first step when we want to make a change. Backing up goals with habits is more than half of the work done.
- The reader is a student based in Abu Dhabi
