My Goal for Today | Rabbi Naftali Horowitz

One day, the Wall Street firm that I worked for decided to hire a fancy consulting firm. They came in, they spent a week, and the outflow of that meeting was at the end of the year, we each had to fill out some very lengthy questionnaire about our practices and what we had done in the past year. And then they asked us to envision how we want next year to look like, the next three years, the next five years, and the next ten years. Every year when I got to these screens, I would laugh. This is absolutely insane. How on earth am I supposed to know what life is going to look like ten years from now? And I would then proceed to put in all the kind of nonsense that they were looking for. A couple of years later, I think the firm realized that none of this was working, and they stopped putting those screens in front of us. Let's contrast that with what R’ Nachman says. R’ Nachman of Breslov says on the pasuk, A person should get up in the morning and make a plan for today. How will I succeed today? That is called a goal. I had a very, very dear friend. His name was R’ Avi Shulman, זכר צדיק לברכה. A person who I ache to speak to every single day, to garner his wisdom and insights in life. R’ Avi once taught me that for something to be constituted as a goal, it has to have three components. It has to be measurable, achievable, so we can hold ourselves accountable. Aspirations are wonderful, but they don't lead us to where we want to go. We have to set firm goals. When we go from goal to goal, ultimately we reach our aspirations. This summer, I had a thought. The Satan wants us to grab large aspirations. I will never look at a forbidden sight again. We all know that that's not possible. We all know that we're not holding there. So this summer, as I was tackling this problem of Shmiras Einayim, I had the following thought. We all have those things that we see inadvertently. We all have those moments of weakness and we look. However, we should make sure that it ends right then and there. We shouldn't think that just because we looked once, it's forsaken, it's gone. It's not true. I made it my goal this summer never to look twice. Always remember the words of R’ Nachman as you walk down the streets and you have to avert your eyes. What will be my goal for today?