Ahh, goal setting. New Year New You. And all of the other sayings that are said around the first of the year. The idea and intentions are good, but how do you actually create goals that you can accomplish no matter what happens in the world around you?
For the last 5-6 years I’ve been creating goals and just seeing what happens. I’ve tried setting New Year’s Resolutions, a Word for the year, and actual goals. The intentions were good with each, but for some reason they were just never actually fully realized- until last year, 2020. I did something different for my goals going into 2020… I set “milestones”. These are markers of accomplishments that let me know I was on track for my LIFE GOAL.
What is a LIFE GOAL?
A Life Goal is a goal based on what you want out of life. Basically, once you know what kind of life you want to live, you create your milestone goals that are a part of living the kind of life you truly want.
I believe there are 2 questions, that once answered, will guide you in knowing what kind of life you truly want to live:
1 How do you want to feel?
2 How do you want to be remembered?
HOW DO YOU WANT TO FEEL?
(The following is from Danielle LaPorte’s book The Desire Map. This book has been life changing for me by the basic principle below and has lead me to my own understandings so my hope is that by sharing the excerpt it will also help you.)
“Everything we do is driven by a desire to feel a certain way. You’re not actually chasing the goal, you’re chasing a feeling you hope reaching the goal will give you. We go after stuff and we hope that we’ll feel great when we get there.
What you buy, what you eat, what you say, who you choose to hang with, the things you make, the people you give your love to, what you wear, what you listen to, what you bring into your home, what you end, begin, and dream of… all go back to the desire to feel good.
Sometimes even feeling bad feels good. Negative emotions can feel so familiar to us as to actually be comforting. Awareness is realizing that our life could always be better. Growth is doing what it takes to make it better. When we choose the positive over the negative, liberation over repression, truth over illusion, we become real creators.
When we want to feel courageous more that we want to check accomplishments off our list… When we want to feel free more than we want to please other people… When we want to feel good more than we want to look good… then we’ve got our priorities in order. Divine priorities- the kind that will steer you to the life you long for most deeply.”
HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?
When you transition from this world, how do you want to be remembered? What do you want your loved ones to say about you as a person at your memorial or funeral (meaning your character)? What do you want them to say about the things you had accomplished?
This question really puts EVERYTHING into perspective. The thing is, we mostly create goals that are good on the outside (surface level) and really in the long run won’t mean anything. Truth is when we’ve come to the end of our lives the one thing that we will want to know is “did I matter”? Knowing how you want to be remembered and what you want to be remembered for doing will guide you into knowing in what ways you want to matter to others.
CONCLUSION
How you want to feel is most likely going to align with how you want to be remembered. And, when you combine the answers from these 2 questions, you’ll be living a life that feels good to live… a life that will feel meaningful… and a life that will be making the impact you want to make on the ones you leave behind.
No matter what happens in the world, when you create goals (and take action steps) from the answers to these questions you will be successful.
Blessings to you today and always!
-Alisha AE