Lifetime Goals
How many blogs are there? How many people read blogs? The answer to the first question is in the tens of millions. The answer to the second could top a hundred million. While only a small percentage of the world population, and two self-selected samples, this is a huge statistical universe to draw on to answer some questions and get material for useful books.
So how do you go about getting the information you want? As with so many things, the direct approach is to ask. Writers, if nothing else, are more than willing to put their two cents in when you ask them for something. The most recent case is Gotta Get Goals, a project designed to find out what our must reach goals are before we take that well-earned vaction at the end of this life. I was tapped by Alex Shalman at Practical Personal Development.
In How to Reach Your Goals I discussed the basics of developing goals. Find out what your mission is in life, develop goals to further that mission, the projects to reach those goals, and the tasks to complete the projects. To grow, we need a map, otherwise we are just marking time.
Goals are supposed to be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely. You may actually reach your goal, and you may not. Even if you don't, you'll be further ahead than you would have been if you didn't attempt it.
One thing to keep in mind with goals is that they should describe what you want to achieve, not how to achieve it. That is the purpose of the projects within a goal. Slavish adherence to the SMART goal mindset will lead you to confuse aims with means, so keep that in mind when you are developing your goals.
One of the things about goals is they can change over time, especially as your mission in life changes. You may find out you no longer want what you wanted when you developed the goal. You may find that the goal isn't in line with your mission in life. You may pass the stage in your life when the goal seems reasonable. You achieve the goal and want to replace it with something else. My current goals are quite different than they were when I was 20. My goals then were
- To become enlightened
- To own 10 rental properties
- To experience love in my life.
- To learn to be a good writer.
- To become a good astrologer.
- To learn yoga.
- To learn how to meditate well.
- To understand as much about life, why we exist and where we're going, as possible.
Some of these I achieved, some have been transformed. Others remain in place. Notice, though, how they contain a mixture of ends and means. Goals are the ends. Projects are the means. For example, the rental property goal should actually be a project subsumed by developing an income such that I didn't have to be an employee unless I wanted to.
My current goals are
- To develop as clear a state of consciousness as I can.
- To learn to be as emotionally active, rather than reactive, as possible.
- To understand as much about life, why we exist and where we are going, as possible.
- To sleep consciously.
- To improve my ability to communicate clearly and effectively.
- To help people become more effect, conscious, and independent.
- To entertain people, giving them a chance to take a vacation from their daily lives.
- To have as little negative impact on the environment as possible.
- To be as independent of the need to work for others as possible.
So, I don't know if this is what you were looking for, Alex, but there you have it. My current set of goals, most of which I expect to be working on for the rest of my life. Reading them you get a pretty clear idea of how I see personal growth and development, and why you read the type of articles you see here.
It's traditional with these things to pass the baton, so Carolyn, Joe, Steve, Kam, Easton, what are some of your goals for this lifetime? Anyone else who wants to take up the torch, please do so (I would appreciate a link back to here and Alex's site if you do,though). Those of you who don't have blogs, let me know in the comment box, or at least seriously think about what your goals are and talk about them with yourself, and for goodness sake write them down.
[tags]goals, personal growth, personal development, planning, memes[/tags]
Great list Rick and thanks for participating.
Well, Rick, I suppose my first goal should be to take the baton.
Hi Alex,
You made me work here, but it made me clarify goals for myself, some of which were more airy-fairy than they should have been before. Thank you!
Only if you want to, Carolyn. Even if you don't write about it though, do it for yourself if you haven't recently.
Oh, I want to, Rick. Most definitely! Actually, I think it's something we should do regularly. Did my last comment sound hesitant?
Oh no, it didn't sound hesitant at all. It was just me being wishy-washy.
A - Let's go out tonight.
B - That's sounds good.
A - Well, only if you really want to.But think about it, okay?
:-)
Gotcha :)
"To sleep consciously." That's interesting, what do you mean?
I got what you meant about enlightenment over at my blog. I don't think it's the end either. Although that's not a popular belief. I mean, what would be the point of becoming enlightened only to die. AND we wouldn't even know about enlightenment today if we other enlightened people didn't live to talk about it.
In Spirit,
Nneka
By 'sleep consciously', I mean to maintain awareness through out the various states of sleep, twenty-four hours a day each and every day, at will. It's one of the reasons why I originally became interested in out of body travel and lucid dreaming. Vedanta characterizes it as yoga nidra.
Hi Rick,
"describe what you want to achieve, not how to achieve it" ...This to me is very powerful.
I've no problem of knowing EXACTLY what I want, the problem with me is that I allow the "how" get in my way and sometimes I compromise my original goal.
The only time that I won't falter my plan is when I have no other alternatives. The only way to go is forward.
It's taken me years to realize the power of that difference, Renee, and I'm still not very good at it. A good part of our difficulties do come from losing sight of the difference, and getting hung up on banging away at one particular path toward achieving a goal, rather than stepping back and seeing what other options will get us to the same place when one path isn't working.
This is important, and most often comes out in emergency situations. When something has to be done, we do do it. We don't see any other options. If our first attempt doesn't work, we let go of it and try something else. All of a sudden there was another option. A lot of us have experienced this and put ourselves into situations where we can allow ourselves this freedom. It's too bad we can't learn to do it with less stress.
I was just thinking today that I needed to write down my goals again...then I come across your post which served as another reminder! Thanks ;)
Synchronicity - ya gotta love it. :-)
Glad to be of service, Maria.