The Power Of Goals

People often tell me “I don’t really have any goals.”

Everyone has goals but they are often not very good ones.

How about a plan to go to the pastry shop and grab a bag of goodies?

It’s still a goal. It may not seem like one but anything planned in the short or long term is a goal.

Even the intention to regularly binge watch a Netflix series is a goal but is it really building upon something worthwhile for yourself?

I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t have downtime but if you are serious about changing an aspect of your life, then even downtime should be planned, not as a priority but for the end of the week/weekend.

Many peoples goals are driven by repetitive thoughts and emotions that lead to short term gratification and not by a long term goal that isn’t dependent upon these feelings.

Once we understand we are all setting goals we can start to understand the nature of these goals, why we set them, what we get from them and the big one, what they may help us avoid.

It’s all there in the daily compass of our life.

In the last few weeks I’ve been rising in-between 3.30-4.30am to work on a couple of projects coming up.

People say to me “How do you do it?” “Where do you find the energy?”

The energy comes primarily from not what I want but the great revealing of who I become by putting myself under pressure and having to tighten my game in order to bring a message or product to the public.

We all have a genetic code of potential greatness but it will only be revealed under pressure, stress and the biggest vision we can set for ourselves.

The energy this produces is enormous.

Just allowing ourselves to dare to dream and set goals that stretch us into the unknown will activate the dormant potential we contain.

One persons goal may be to stay in a job they loath from the fear of not having a wage, wait for the 5pm clock off and then watch TV most of the evening.

Another persons goal may be to pursue a dream, accept the uncertainty, the unknown, the risk and be willing to sacrifice comfort and security to pursue it.

Sacrifice then, becomes a prominent feature and in the tradition of Stoic philosophy, we must ask an important question.

“What am I willing to sacrifice to achieve an ambition?”

These include our own beliefs, that are no more real than the overinflated rewards and satisfaction we believe will come from a constant indulgence of short term gratification.

Do it enough, and we find it delivers misery.

A misery that can negatively influence someone character and entire perception.

The American Indians used to say “Fear opens the way to all evils.”

Staying small isn’t just harmful to the man but to those around him, because once he feels less of himself, it’s projected into his environment.

When we dare to dream and have the intention to expand our character and ambitions, we are not only changing our lives but the world around us.

Now we start to create the dual nature of a goal, which encompasses the development of a better man, whilst he pursues his chosen ambition.

Now that’s a goal worth considering.