I think that I'm caught in the middle of Epistemologies

Epistemology is the science of knowledge or how we look at things.  What are the lenses that we use to filter what we see, and what we know?

I was working on goal setting today and found myself in the middle of two perspectives.  From one, I was looking at where I am now, and setting goals for what I could accomplish in the next 7 days.  From this perspective, I was very much following Kuhn's approach to scientific revolutions.  I am trying to move forward, with no apparent path or destination in mind.  I am just trying to move from where I am and hope that one day, my perspective will shift drastically.  Hmmm.  I know what it feels like to take this route, but I'm not sure that it will get me to where I need to be.  I guess that I could trust in the universe, but I have never felt that my destiny should be completely out of my hands either.

The other approach that I used was to employ all my teacher training and to set the goal with the end in mind.  Where do I want to be, and what are the steps that I need to take to get there?  In some sense, its very behaviorist.  May be, its why I cringe when I try to do this.  I've never been a check the box and live within the guidelines kind of person.  In fact, whenever I try to be this way, I become quite bored and frustrated.

So, what is the answer?  I don't know.  May be to do a little of both!!

Here's my plan for tomorrow:
- Visualize and define the big picture.  Stop thinking logically, but imagine where I would love to be, if I could just set myself down somewhere.
- Then I can think about all the things that I will think, do, see, feel, etc., when I am in this next perfect situation.
- Then I can make shorter term plans to take me towards them.  Probably 3 months and 1 week.

I don't feel that I am good at defining the process of working toward goals.  I don't know what happens, but when I try to be too precise, usually something gets in the way.  But when I set my mind to the goal and trust that it will happen, it generally does. 

Does it make me feel uneasy?  Sometimes.  The down side is that I spend a lot of time feeling like I'm just hanging on and barely getting by.  I would like to have a greater sense of accomplishment than that.  The upside is that I don't spend a lot of time feeling like I'm trying to decide the exact right thing to do for my plan.  I know where I want to go and trust myself to make the decision and do it.  I accomplished my PhD this way, and in the time frame that I initially set for myself.  And even though I've always downplayed this to others, I think it was a pretty good accomplishment!

So, which way do I go?  How do I know?  I don't think it matters.  Because as long as I'm taking my next action and not just thinking about it, then I'm on my way somewhere!