So you’ve made that list of goals – again. Once more you’ve written down your wants and resolutions. So what? You’ve done it a hundred times before, and what good did it do you? Now what?
Setting goals is like placing your order at a restaurant. Not achieving those goals means you’re still sitting there waiting (whether patiently or otherwise) or you’ve gotten up and walked out of the restaurant before your order could be delivered.
The restaurant analogy ends here, however, because there are conscious, proactive steps you can take to speed up the delivery of those things you ordered; you have the power to postpone it and refuse it. You likewise have the power to aid in its attainment.
Here are several methods:
- Take any one of your goals and ask yourself why you want it? Write down the answer. Then ask yourself why you want that? Continue this way until you feel you’ve come to a fundamental desire that you simply cannot break down further. A desire for a new car may be backed by a desire for status which may be backed by a desire to be loved which can be attained in a slew of other ways than just a car. Desire, in this instance, to be loved.
- Then, in a creative reversal of this nonconstructive method, ask yourself what it would look like if you were loved (or put better – what it will look like when you are loved). What will you have, feel, and experience when you have that love you want? Do you have any of those things already? If so, you’re already there, receiving your order, and all that’s left is to continue receiving. If not, no matter, it’s now on its way.
- Each day, pick one of your goals and take one simple action towards its attainment. Too often we become paralyzed into inaction by the apparent “size” of our goals, really a resistance to the stark contrast between our goals and our current condition. So break it down into bite-sized chunks, one bite at a time. You need only emanate the energy of alignment with the attainment of your desires to receive it. By wanting it, you already called it to you. You don’t have to work your tail off to get it. You just have to give it conscious daily attention concentrated through the performance of a simple and realizable act.
- Enroll other people in your goals. It can be frightening at first to be so vulnerable as to share your desires with another person, but it’s equally potent in its effects. People who love you will always love to put their energy towards your happiness and fulfillment, even if that energy comes in no other form than as “moral support”. In many cases, your goals align perfectly with another’s goals and suddenly you both have found a partner in fulfillment. In extreme cases (more frequent than you may think) a circumstance you couldn’t possibly have imagined will “coincidentally” touch another person’s life that they could put towards your goal’s attainment if they had only known they could have helped. People love to help each other. Give them a chance. Share you goals. Tell other people what you want and let them help you have it.
The other thing to make sure to do regularly is to revisit your list of goals, review them, update them. You may find some goals of your past you no longer desire today. You may replace old goals with new ones and refine persistent goals. You may even find that some goals you achieved since the last time you glanced at your list, and you hadn’t even know it!
