I was looking into motivations and came across a web site that listed all sorts of important strengths.  All of the attributes are not necessarily in everyone, but those who display most are most likely to attract.  The list included such attributes as “Big picture thinking, realism, open mindedness, risk taking, caring, and persistence” to name a few.
While scrolling through pages of the site I came across one on courage (https://simplicable.com/talent/courage).  It gave a number of examples of courage which to me was a real eye opener.  It started by saying something similar to: “Courage is the capacity to face fear and only exists where someone heads into their fears.”
I tended to think of courage mostly as exhibiting something like displaying courage under fire or facing an enemy intent on my destruction - or running into a situation like a fire or potential drowning with seemingly little thought for my personal safety.  All of these are examples of courage, but the list included things I never imagined.
Things like “trying new things” which when I consider it, takes courage.  It is seemingly easier to maintain the current status if I am afraid of new things.  It also included “taking on responsibility.”  To me that was just something that needed doing.  Yet again when I think about it from my own experience it is like Star Trek “bravely going where no man has gone before.”   I may have a picture in my head of how things will turn out, but I can put all I know into place to guarantee success, but despite my best efforts success is not guaranteed.
To me that involves another thing on the list. “accepting accountability for failure.”  I am a big one on the buck stops here - when it does.  I am not into blaming others when something I am in charge of goes belly up.  To me extenuating circumstances may have worked against me, but if the chain stops at me then I am responsible for maintaining the chain.
The list was extensive but showed me that courage is multi-faceted.  The bottom line for me is attempting anything new is a courageous act fraught with possible pitfalls.  Compromise on anything listed is a recipe for potential disaster but adhering to something despite opposition liberates me and has the potential to liberate many.

I have been reading quotes on goals.  It is a really random thing, but some ring a bell with me.  Sometimes I find it humorous (that is meant to be) and at other times what is said resonates as applicable to my life.
I found something a Lily Tomlin said to be humorous. “I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.”  When I think of it, even the worst have desirable traits.  It is how those traits are used that determines if the life is worth imitating.  I can be disciplined and destructive or disciplined and a giver.  Two leaders in the news come to mind.  One I aspire to be like, and the other is to me a lesson in what not to do.  So I reckon Lily Tomlin is right.  Mentors are good but specifics determine outcome.
I read another one from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. “…it’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life.”  I must admit I am big on that sort of one.  To me both the journey and the destination are important.  I do not adhere to a belief that life needs to be austere and lacking interest or fun to be meaningful.  In fact, I think the exact opposite.  To me life is abundant, and I have been given so much to enjoy.
Yet it is a quote by someone I consider to be my favourite author that I adhere to in relation to life.  C.S.Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you will get neither.”
For me that is the bottom line of goal setting.  This earth is a closed environment with finite resources.  I have no desire to imagine the finite is infinite.  To me only the infinite is infinite so that is the place in which I want my goals to be anchored. 

Something that has been very real to me of late is letting go.
Some things I reckon are really easy to let go of.   It makes sense to me .  It may be a destructive habit.   It may be overeating.  It may be having too much of something that, while ok in moderation, is not good when it is done or taken in excess.  There are many things it makes sense to let go of.
Also I find bitterness and resentment is best let go if.  That one can be harder.  I admit I was feeling resentful of a neighbour who was using our fence as the support for the roof for his chooks.  Not only did the structure extend into our place it was sending water into our place.  I had asked him to deal with it, but nothing had happened for going on four weeks. 
I would let go and take it back again.  I was ready to say that I was going to deal with it from our side.  But low and behold yesterday it was removed.  I feel a bit of a goose.  But I am a happy goose.
Something I really like is that in letting go of things I need to deal with, I face them in “increments of difficulty.”  By that I mean the battles I face I always have enough to have a win.  I don’t always feel like I have enough, but my perception of what I can and can’t do is not necessarily the way it is.  Sometimes I am stronger than what I give myself credit for.
To me that is a real common issue.  So often some say they can’t, when they can.  The basis of the can’t is self-perception rather than the way it is.  But for sure my perception of my abilities affects the outcome.  I remember hearing a saying that I reckon is pretty right.  “believe you can, believe you can’t - either way you will be right.”
The hardest thing for me is letting go of what is ok in itself, but represents a hinderance for what I want to do.  I have used the illustration before, but it is like an athlete who forgoes say chocolate or pizzas for a time.  There is noting wrong with either in moderation but they are counter-productive to certain achievements
This letting go thing is a bottom line thing for me.  There was a saying popular several decades ago that said something like, “let it go, if it comes back to you, it is yours, and if not it was never meant to be.”  It is not about my plans for me, but someone who knows me “better than I know myself ,“ plans for me.