For two months the goal was to get to and through Pesach.

Now that that’s done — what’s next?

My friend calls and says she’s in the middle of a 500-page book about “success.” How to achieve it how to define it.

“First step” she says is to write a list of your goals.

“What you want to accomplish in life.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I say.

She says all her goals fall into four categories.

We discuss her four categories and I ask how she’s going to go about implementing them.

She says “That’s the next chapter.”

“What are your goals?” she asks.

“That’s the problem” I say. “A lot of things and nothing.”

I think about major and minor goals.

I always feel like major goals are kind of too embarrassing to say out loud because they sound ridiculous they’re so unattainable.

So those just get jotted down in some discreet notebook where no one can find them.

“Look everyone thought Edison and Einstein had unattainable goals no?”

Before Pesach I read in a dvar Torah somewhere that one of the elements of “freedom” is to realize our potential and work towards it. Otherwise we have “imprisoned” potential and that imprisonment itself is very painful — like something’s always pushing at the gate of your consciousness and you know what it is but you don’t want to admit you know because then you have to do something about it.

This is what backaches headaches and tension is all about.

My friend goes on to explain that the book says there’s something called “breakthrough goals” which push us forward and open up the paths to our goals.

Like Pesach’s a jumpstart I think. All of Pesach I kept saying “Why can’t the house look like this all year? Why can’t the refrigerator and stove be spotless? And you know what? It can. Because we already tackled it. Now it’s just defense upkeep.

She emphasizes “We start by mapping out the steps to the path we’re going to take.”

The next morning I wake up and daven all the goals rushing to the forefront of my brain to block out the tefillos.

Today instead of letting them take over I get up take out a pen and paper and write them down.

One of the goals — all the names floating randomly around my brain. Shidduchim.

Every time I see a single person I want to find their other half. It’s like a feeling when you loose something and it doesn’t leave you alone till you find it.

This morning I took out two sheets of paper. On one I wrote “Women” and the other “Men.” Then I jotted down quickly all the names I could remember and then taped the list to my office wall. As I write already I see some potentials.

Step by step I’ll fill in the phone numbers when I sit in “my office” which actually is a converted walk-in kitchen closet.

Now speaking of the converted walk-in kitchen closet somehow two cartons of heavy grape juice moved in here and they haven’t moved out and they’re really bothering me. However catching someone strong enough to move them before they eat or as they run in and out has been like chasing butterflies — as the cartons continue to sit. When I want to wash the floors I can’t go that far because wetting cardboard is not a good idea.

So with the idea of breaking the goal down into lists I decide that morning to take out three bottles at a time and move them to the downstairs storage room.

By ten the same morning between checking the mail taking out the garbage and one trip just for fun — one whole carton is gone. Moved out. I see with my own eyes how making the list brings the thought into action

By two I’ve caught a “butterfly” and got them to shlep down the last carton.

Maybe this is what it’s all about bringing our thoughts from our heads down the pipe to our hands and feet. Bringing the intention of heaven to earth. This is the goal.