Aim Low

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

They say this to children in elementary schools, they use it to motivate young athletes before the championship game, they even put it on posters in gyms to jumpstart the lazy; but I think they should do away with this aim high bullshit.

Aiming high, for most people, only leads to failure; but if you aim low, I guarantee you will surprise and impress yourself. I used to buy into the aim high diatribe, and admittedly it does help with the initial motivation; but failure is surely on the horizon, because that’s life. And after this failure, quitting is usually the next step; don’t believe me, just look at the stalled gym enrollments in spring and the junior high dropout rate. It’s because we are aiming too high; it would certainly explain the rise in anti depressant use.

If I were a teacher, I would have posters all over my class that would say “aim low, you will probably succeed” or “shoot for the outer layer of the ozone, you might hit the stars”; that is realistic motivation. When I have children, their only goal will be to get up, get dressed on their own and get to school, anything beyond that is gravy.

I think I have been aiming too high people, I had it all backwards. If I had been aiming low, I would feel great right now, instead “they” had me believing this moon shoot bullshit; but like I said before...Times are a changing.


So my weekend nugget of wisdom for the world is:

“Aim Low, you will probably succeed’.


Scholastic should put that shit on a poster.