What are goals? What’s the difference between a goal and a resolution?
A goal is something you’re working toward, something you want. But a resolution can be any kind of change you plan on implementing in your life. I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I’m not very good at resolutions. I did make one last year, and I think I did pretty well. My resolution was to stop procrastinating my book work, and have it caught up all the time. I slipped a bit at the end of the year, but for the most part, I feel I did well. I have made it a habit to get it done, and that makes all the difference. Changing your habits is how you change your life.
But this year, I felt I needed goals. I want something to work towards, something to give me the motivation to work hard, to be all I can be. I sat with my journal, and really couldn’t come up with much. In fact, it made me more frustrated the longer I pondered. Here’s what I ended up writing:
What are goals anyway? Is it just a wishlist of things to get done? A master plan for life? What if I don’t know what my goals are yet? What if I enjoy living life by the seat of my pants?
I don’t know what this life will bring-what this year will bring. How do I set goals in a place with no certainty? How does one set goals in a game with no rules?
If my goals are simply the ways I hope to change myself for the better, then aren’t they actually aspirations?
Can I choose the goal of having such a great life that I don’t need any goals? Can I trust the God of the Universe enough to stay motivated without having any said goals other than to just be myself?
I think that’s my true goal, to just be myself. No more worrying about the opinions of other people, because truly, they don’t matter. No more worrying about if what I said was taken the wrong way, or not understood correctly. No more worrying about hurting other people’s feelings, especially when they aren’t worried about hurting mine. Perhaps worrying is the thing I need to get rid of. All right, so I’ll be my true self, and stop worrying. There. Its set. Happy 2017!
You have to believe in yourself. If you’ve ever been in sports, your coach probably said those words, or told you that you have to believe it to achieve it, or something similar. Many times in life when we face obstacles, we talk ourselves through it, we help ourselves do something by believing we can! But if the talk in our minds is negative, its not going to help us at all. Its going to pull us down, because if you believe you are worthless, you’ll become worthless. If you believe you are overcoming, then you are an over-comer. As children, we are told many things, some good, some bad. Stop believing the bad things. Stop believing the cruel words of others. Only believe the good, and work toward being better. Try hard to be a better person today, than you were yesterday. Change only happens when you change what you are saying to yourself!
~be careful little ears what you hear~
But think about this, what if every song lyric you sang or listened to automatically transferred into your life as a true fact. Would you keep listening to the same music? The songs you sing in your head; are they going to lift you up? Or bring you down? Do you listen to sad songs? Or songs about violence and rage? Those words are who you become. Do the lyrics of your favorite song talk about how pathetic you are? How screwed up you are? Its only going to reinforce these thoughts and keep you stuck in the downward spiral.
It kills me when people who suffer from depression listen to death metal. Don’t you want to feel better? Listen to happy music, children’s songs, church hymns, anything that’s upbeat. Don’t reinforce your depression by listening to someone drone on about how miserable they are, or how terrible their life is. Every genre has this music; Country, Rap, Metal, and Rock. There are even Classical pieces that resonate doom and despair-don’t listen to them! Pick something that makes you feel good inside. Find some music that makes you feel happy. And no, don’t try to tell me you only feel happy when you listen to depressing or angry music, I don’t buy it, please don’t insult my intelligence. Find some relaxing music; Native American flutes, Buddhist singing bowls, or ocean waves, or something from nature; anything that clears your mind and helps you think in a positive manner.
~be careful little eyes what you see~
Did you know that when you watch a movie, your subconscious brain believes its really happening to you? There are people who have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after watching violence happenings on television. Some people are more sensitive than others and watching horror movies, or violence, can cause serious repercussions, especially in children. So think about how much stress you are inflicting on your subconscious just by what you watch on the screen! (I’m going to start watching exercise videos!)
~be careful little hands what you do~
Having nothing to do is an invitation to boredom, and that can cause you to feel worthless. Find a hobby. Find something for you to do in your spare time. You’d be better off finding a part time job to make a few extra bucks than just sitting around moping. It good to have things to do, find some!
Finding peace is possible, if you want to find it. You have to believe you can, and you need to feel that you are worthy. Only you can make your life better, and the best way to start is by realizing that everything you tell yourself is true. The words you say, the music you listen to, the things you give your attention to, are the things that make up your life. If you want your life to change, you have to change it! You have to pick a different choice than you have in the past.
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
“There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.”
Henry Ford is credited for the quotes above, and he’s right.
Sometimes I feel like I am drifting through life with no real purpose. I am the wanderer, wandering.
I’ve done the homework, the writing, the thinking, the praying.
What am I meant for?
I can write out sheets and sheets of goals and purposes, but what do they really mean? What are they worth?
I can read book after book, and I have, but still, none of them tell me what I should be doing, what I should be giving back to this world.
I know that, in the sense of the Universe, I’m right where I need to be. I know how to act, how to be, how to love.
But what can I do to change the world?
What can I do to make some sense out of this crazy place called Earth, full of greed and hate, and apathy? Full of loneliness, despair, and hurt. Full of rejection, sadness, and sorrow.
What can I do to make people wake up and realize that this isn’t all there is, there is more!
I want to help. I want to change lives. I want to teach.
But the majority of people don’t want help, they don’t want to change, and they don’t want to learn.
If only I could open their eyes to see!! There is more than this!!! There is so much more!!!
So I work on me; my life, changing me, learning new things to help me. Maybe someday, this will pay off. But I still pace, wringing my hands, feeling like I should be doing something MORE. But what? What can I give? What can I give to this crazy Earth full of love and peace, and compassion? Full of happiness, joy, and kindness? Full of cooperation, encouragement, and God?
I will breathe in. I will breathe out. I will breathe in. I will breathe…and I will wait.
At kick boxing class tonight, the trainer asked each of us for an accomplishment in our lives, and a goal. Luckily, I was toward the end of the line, but I still had a hard time coming up with a goal I felt comfortable sharing with the group. Most of them had fitness related goals, or nutrition related goals. I came up with the goal of losing my belly fat, which is a true goal that I’m striving toward, but what about all my other goals? And what’s the difference between a goal, and something I’d like to do?
A goal is a desired result a person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. (Wikipedia)
The “something I’d like to do” is just something, well, I’d like to do someday if the opportunity arises. So it seems that I have a huge list of things I’d really like to do someday, but only a handful of true goals.
And what about the goals I have already accomplished? There’s quite a few, I can proudly say. But in reality, many of the goals I accomplished weren’t really goals, they were just things I’d like to do. The opportunity arose, so I did them.
But maybe we all set goals differently. Maybe some people have a hard time writing goals in stone, and others of us, like me, have somewhat squishy goals. Sure they are goals, but yet, I have no definite plan for how to accomplish them. But yet my subconscious knows they are goals, and works me into a situation where I can accomplish them.
So in this goal of fulfilling my goals, I need to have faith. I need to have faith that the Universe will send me ways to accomplish my dreams and do the things I want to do. I need to have faith that I will notice the opportunity when it arises so I can take advantage of it.
But I do have concrete goals as well. Some of my super-goals are to start a community garden in my town, to finish writing my book, and to have shoulders like Jillian Michaels. These are the goals I actually work on, on a regular basis. But the rest of my many, many goals are just spinning out there in space, waiting to see if they can latch onto anything. I’m a “go-with-the-flow” kind of person, so this doesn’t bother me at all. However, I imagine if you are a person who likes their lives to be regularly scheduled, this may not work.
What kind of person are you, and what kind of goals do you have for life? I love to hear about it in the comment section!
Ramblings 