The Desert of Arizona
Clear 41 Degrees – 4:39 a.m.
At a friend’s house last night, the topic of goals came up in the conversation. “I pretty much gave them up…” was my response.
Now I’m no stranger to how you’re supposed to set goals. I know what the experts say about setting goals.
And I’ve certainly done it. I’ve done it with money, I’ve done it in just about every area of my life.
I’ve made long lists of todos, reverse engineered the action steps to achieve those things, and so on.
But I’ve also (finally) realized that the only real expert on me is ME. Same for you. So I’ve been focusing on my own expertness and figuring that out rather than bothering to listen to someone else.
Not only does traditional goal setting constantly take me out of the moment, it also enforces the divide between my current reality and a reality that is not yet present. It leads me to live “in my head” and believe that I can “think through” my future and plan it out (as if I control it!) It creates the illusion of control, so your ego can sleep at night, where there actually IS little control.
Traditional goal setting also sets you up for the times when reality has other plans and it proves you actually AREN’T in full control of the universe. What a surprise.
But what about all of the success stories you hear about goal setting and how people were successful?
Well, we hear success stories about all types of things. That’s usually the only story that gets told, mind you. No one’s going to write a book about how they used a goal setting system and achieved nothing. It’s just not going to happen.
The bottom line, for me, is that traditional goal setting does not make use of our most powerful gifts as CREATORS.
Here’s my understanding of how it works:
Set an intention, imagine it DONE, put feeling and detail into that image, revisit that image over time.
Then stop thinking about that image, return to the present moment and watch, wait and listen for clues.
You might notice this describes what happens during prayer. Other people would describe that act as magic. Most recently, it’s been given a new age “manifestation” wrapper to get people all excited about their power. But this ability has been around forever. It’s not mystical AT ALL. It’s how you’re made.
But what should you “do” if you’re not setting goals in the traditional way?
I don’t know. I do the same thing every day. I write to you about what’s on my mind that I feel might be helpful. Then I help the people that come to me from that.
I do that everyday. That’s ONE goal I actually have. But it’s not a normal goal because I have no plans of “going” anywhere with it. I’m not achieving something with it, I’m just along for the ride. I just do that activity and watch, wait and listen.
The important thing isn’t my opinion here, it’s yours. And if you don’t have one, then maybe today is the day you offer yourself some critical thinking about yourself in regards to this topic.
Maybe traditional goal setting works for you, maybe it doesn’t.
Here’s yet another opportunity to figure yourself out and ignore everyone else.