Step By Step: Goal Setting for Capricorn

Photo Credit: Jo Tracey

Before I went to Bali last February I mentioned to my Capricorn sister that I wouldn’t mind doing the 4 hour trek up the volcano to greet the sunrise from the top of the world. She thought it sounded like a great idea. So I researched it.

Bali in February is at the tail end of the monsoon. As a result, the volcano is shrouded in cloud for much of the time. Hmmmm. Did I want to pull an all nighter (the pick up from the hotel was at around midnight) and climb (possibly in the rain) in order to get to the top and see nothing? Not a chance! Instead my travelling companion and I went to the closest vantage point, Kintamani, and saw….nothing. The cloud was so thick that the photo was all grey.

On my return, my Cap sister asked if I had done the walk. Upon hearing my justification, she made the comment that it wasn’t all about the photo at the end, it was about the sense of achievement in completing the task that had been set. ‘It’s about the journey, Jo…’

Capricorn is one of the most goal driven signs in the zodiac. And please don’t write and tell me that you aren’t...every Capricorn needs a goal... they may just not notice it.

My Capricorn sister is one of the most driven people I know. A stay at home Mum with more kids than I can count...actually there is only 4, but with 3 of them being boys, it probably just sounds like more when they are thundering down the timber floored hallway of her home. Lol. Anyways, she is driven...and needs a defined role... She argues with me on this- until I point out the titles she has given herself on her email signature: CEO, Vice President Domestic Duties, Property Manager.

Just as Capricorn likes to make herself indispensable at work, so does she in the work she does at her kids’ schools. She sets financial goals for the returns to come out of the stalls she runs for the Annual Fete. And the stalls under her control are structured & organised, with all the other Mothers knowing exactly what is expected of them. They are also successful.

She manages the household budget against a set of goals- to get through the fortnight without having to buy more ice cream, with a view to getting the best value for her dollar, & with the end goal to afford an annual vacation for all of them.

When her gym holds their Biggest Loser competition each year is when she decides she needs to lose weight- she attaches herself to those physical goals & generally comes out on top (her Aries Ascendant helps with that one). She doesn’t get phased by the size of the mountain, nor does she try & shortcut the process. She sets a goal weight, a goal date & a plan of what she has to do & what she has to eat in order to get there. Then she starts up that hill. Step by step. Bit by bit. Even when the top is shrouded in mist and fog and cloud she keeps going.

In contrast her older more Piscean sister is busy looking for a way to shortcut the process, play catch up. While I am sipping on the wine I am not supposed to be drinking, distracted by the view or the potential of another way around the mountain (surely it would be quicker to drive to the top?), she is still focused on her goal, saying “no” and putting in the hard yards. She gets to the top of the mountain, while I am still deciding whether or not to try hang-gliding off the particular plateau I am on, or whether perhaps to go back down & go for a nice swim instead.

She says she doesn’t set goals. She says she doesn’t need a purpose. She says she doesn’t need a role. She says she doesn’t like hard work. She says she isn’t ambitious. I say it is so much and so intrinsically wound into the very fibre of her being that she simply doesn’t notice. In her case, with a Capricorn husband and two Capricorn children (the other two are Virgos), the very nature of earthly practicality is sewn into the fabric of the home.

What she also doesn’t notice is how flat she is & how inclined she is to worry about nothing when she doesn’t have something to aim for. Without a goal she worries about situations that will usually turn out alright. Nor does she notice how quickly she picks up in mood when there is a practical something to push towards, or the kick inside she gets from coming first and being seen to be the best. She read this piece last year, made the usual protests and then finally agreed it to be true.

Capricorn is strong. Capricorn is determined. Capricorn is hard working. Capricorn likes to climb things. Capricorn knows how to set goals. Capricorn truly believes that the journey is as important as the arrival. The problem only comes when they realise that they are climbing that mountain at the expense of everything else in their lives or when the mountain they have climbed becomes a chain around their necks.

Which brings me neatly to dealing with stress...Next time....

Oh and the volcano? Ganung Batur, to be precise. This trip I got a photo- sure it is still shrouded in mist and had disappeared from view not 10 minutes after I snapped this very ordinary shot from the vantage point in Kintamani- for me, it is about the photo.