Goal setting is so 1990. If you are still setting goals, I’m going to say a prayer that you are being forced by an ominous and outdated boss to write down empty promises in a self evaluation document and that shortly thereafter you find your way to the nearest escape exit from the building and run…far and fast.
It’s not to say that goal setting is all bad…it has it’s place. Mostly in corporate culture and in self help books for the newly indoctrinated into the world of well-being. But what goal setting lacks, most of all, is heart.
“Heart” is the secret ingredient that moves goals into the category of dreams and possibilities that become real, tangible and then inspire others.
When’s the last time you heard a start-up founder talk about the goals that they set for themselves when they created their vision? Or were inspired to know someone more because of the goals they set for their year ahead? CEO’s mostly share about an idea that took on a life of it’s own. “Start a company this year” never makes it to a paper list of things to do in the year ahead. The idea has life, passion, and purpose that are nurtured from the inside out.
Plain and simple, here’s what’s up:
Goals don’t inspire. People do. And people are motivated by heart and soul.
If you should find yourself in a session with me, whether for the first time of the fifty-fourth, I will always and continuously ask you one pertinent question,
“What would you like?”
Because it does not matter what you should do, what you think is best or what the social norm is doing.
I want to know what it is that moves you, what you deeply desire to create, have, be or do in the world. THAT is the stuff that will move you into action. This motivation is sourced infinitely from your heart, and is what turns dreams into reality.
So the next time you want to set goals, I have one piece of advice for getting started:
Set your goals on fire. Literally. Ignite them with heart and soul.
What this means is to build your goals from your heart space, not your head-space. Ask yourself, when I have this ____ (promotion, relationship, less stress, healthy body, reduction in physical pain), what will having that do for me? What’s the true inspiration that my soul is reaching for? That’s where the real gem of motivation is. Start there, and move into more and more of what you want from that place of being.
It’s magical. And it moves dreams into reality like wildfire.
So this year my wish for you is to dream on, and then do what your heart desires.
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