Goal vs. intention

Are you a goal setter? You know, one of those people who make New Years resolutions, maybe not with the intention to break it, but with big, big plans to do huge, amazing things. "I'm going to loose 25 pounds before Valentine's Day!" " I'm going to send birthday cards to all of my extended family." "I'm going to exercise six days a week ." 
--a year without sugar
--a year without carbs
--catching up on scrap booking
--organize those photos,
--plan the menus for the entire month. 

I am not one of these people. 
Goal setting; not really my thing. I think maybe I'm afraid of commitment. Or maybe I'm afraid of letting myself down, or someone else, or both!

Running opened me up to a whole new world of goal setting. It started with my desire to run a half marathon, which came from training for a 10K, which came from running a few 5Ks in order to get back not shape. 
I never had a "goal" to run a half marathon. Well, not much before I decided to run it. 
During training runs I would occasionally listen to a podcast. One specifically talked about goal setting. I almost didn't listen to it; two women talking about running and goals and how they are a good thing? Yea, right. 
Well, as they talked in my ears, they said how setting a goal is a good thing. It gives us something to work towards. The goal can be simple, "smile more today...run to the next mailbox...give someone a compliment". I also learned that adjusting the goal is totally acceptable. For example--
When
--Goal A is to run 5 miles. BUT, you didn't sleep much the night before and you feel really, really tired.
--Goal B is to run 3 miles because that's the usual minimum. However, legs feel like led and your head is swimming with all of the "have to's" waiting for you later.
--Goal C is to run to the next mailbox and then just go home because sleep didn't happen and nice mommy needs to exist.

Recently, I learned a new word in relation to goal setting: intention. Setting an intention seems much nicer to me. I intend to do many things, but I am less hard on myself when I do not fully accomplish what I set out to do. This does not mean that I accept failure or quitting, it simply means that I intend to do things, and they will get done.  Sort of a softer deadline or feeling. I like it.

Overall, I now know that setting a goal is good, achieving it is better. Adjusting the goal is totally acceptable.
--the goal can be something as simple as, "smile more today."

This, I learned on accident because I listened to a podcast on purpose.