If not goals, then what?
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
-Henry David Thoreau
{In case you missed it: How we got here. Eff Goals | They are just lines on paper anyway.}
I am going to get right to the point: if not goals, then what?
This might surprise you. The answer is: Goals! That’s what! {WTF? Me, and maybe you, too: scratching head. How can it be a big ex-nay on the goals thing only to hooray for goals? I promise I will get there.}
“My commitment is to truth, not consistency.”
And before I go down the wandering path, here's the point: First, you must ask questions of your goals. You must inquire of the goal, that bright shiny object: why you? Where are you taking me on this journey to become who I want to be in this lifetime? And second, and maybe most importantly, you must go after that goal with everything inside you - knowing it is not a destination. It is the next important door to be walked through, the lesson to be learned, strength to be gained. And if you fail, that was entirely the point, to gain something new and to set off in search of the next goal.
I learned all this the hard way. I gave goals the middle finger. And I committed whole-heartedly to a deep “throw out goals in search of something else;” and here’s what actually happened: I found a deep and true love of goals. I mean, totally and completely fell madly head over heels in love with them; nope, not the frenemy kind. And it was entirely and completely, magic. The Universe is that.
Maybe you’ve been there. It happens a lot. When I put these bold statements, reflections, out into the world, especially when they come in the form of uncomfortable judgements, criticisms, comparisons like: “eff this” and “screw that” proclamations. Then the Universe quietly gets to work. I question my beliefs; I unload the dirty laundry about my judgments; and I come face to face with how scared I am. I search for the source of that fear.
Then, suddenly, like what happens when the Wizard is revealed behind the curtain, I open myself to see the world and my “eff it” mentality in a totally different way. Crazy how that happens. Suddenly: wham-o, right in the face, some sort of realization like the door that hits me on the way out of the building. The Ah-Ha! My disdain transforms into love. But it takes work. And the willingness to fail. {Which is entirely ironic because if you read Part 1 of this whole meandering, then you know I am deeply afraid of failing. Hmm.}
Fear and failure. Disdain and contempt. A willingness to see things differently. The humility to question my judgments.
Then suddenly, something totally and completely new.
{Which we will dive in to in our next Goals musing.}
Written by Courtney Sawyer
Art by Becca Williams
