It’s interesting, this concept of goals. Is it possible to be someone who’s interested in achieving but also is able to live in the moment? If you didn’t set “goals” for yourself would you be able to accomplish the things you want to accomplish, whether they’re as small as organizing your closet (not so small for some), or as large as discovering your dream career? If you didn’t set a goal…if you went with the flow, would you achieve these things? It’s Interesting.
A great deal of “goal” momentum has to do with desire. There may be other things sandwiched in there; perhaps there’s a bit of anxiety, or fear, or anger, or…you fill in the blanks. It’s these things in the sandwich that may alter the accomplishment of the “goal”, or the speed. If we have a whole-hearted desire, along with a clear understanding as to how to achieve what we want…won’t we get there? Wouldn’t all the days between the thought of doing something and the actual completing it, be just a walk down Paradise Lane? It would be quite a hop, skip were it not for the various things that popped up along the way? Life at times feels like an action video game, or maybe it’s the other way around? That’s why the end of the road or the lane is our goal. We could call it a destination, but that seems so final…doesn’t it? When we reach our goal, we’re onto our next one. It’s not like when we plan a trip and we reach our destination and then the only thing we’re looking towards is going home.
Is it possible to live in the moment and have a goal? All of this is up for discussion, but I actually believe you can do both. I believe you can enjoy every moment as it’s happening and at the same time have that long range plan about what you want to achieve…you can have a goal. I’ve been told in my past that I may not live very long. As you may have read in my previous blogs, I was first diagnosed with a brain tumor 24 years ago. I woke up every morning making the most of every day, but my goal was to find the best medical care I could find and live the longest best life I could live. Here I am! My careers have changed, I’ve raised two kids (anyone reading this, who has kids, knows what kind of changes you go through when you have kids); I’ve lived in an apartment that blew up with all our family stuff in it. Life has changes. I believe you can have goals and still appreciate every single day you’re here. I believe it’s not either or, but you can and actually need to have both. Is it that we’ve gotten caught up in the terminology? Some things we don’t need to make a plan or have a goal for, because we don’t mind doing them. We don’t need to think much about enjoying the moments when we’re doing the things we like doing. There are other things that don’t come as easily. We need to think about those good things that happen during the day when we’re doing the things we don’t like doing…we need to remember that “our goals” are a means to an end. The end of our goals are our DREAMS! Like Oprah said, “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are” Your thoughts?