Quick post here... something that's been on my mind a while.
I think it's certainly good to obtain things that are exact rather than abstract. Any prediction into the future is abstract to an extent... "I believe you'll be great at sales/poker". You might THINK that's a nice thing to hear, but I'd rather actually just demonstrate, with concrete results, being good in the present.
The whole thing is... I've spent my life immersed in words, yet they don't mean a thing. Anybody can say anything. That's why I feel super comfortable rejecting any written communication now... I've written a novel based on reading thousands and thousands of books and thinking deeply for so long, yet plenty of people think it's ok not to read it.
You can use words to mystify things, amp people up, put them down. None of it means anything- unless you allow it to. That's why having concrete measurable goals is so important- but DIFFICULT often. You know that each minute of the day you're not doing something towards them you are actually moving further away, or at best standing still. Goals like "I want to be a good boyfriend" or "I want to help people" (family member has last one as goal) are pretty lame. You can easily tell yourself you're a good boyfriend. If you're 'helping someone' part of that (a large part I think) is to make yourself feel good. And on that goal, it's better to help yourself first before helping others- that way you can give better help if you want to. I personally couldn't set a goal to 'help people' until I felt I was perfect myself, and even then I'd make it much more measurable.
