Are Your Goals Worth Gold?

Goals… They evoke something strenuous or something boring, but rarely something to cherish. In the past we have used goals to accomplish a task or as a way to change something we dislike, such as resolutions set for the New Year, and we have rarely been successful. What difference would it make if we were to value our goals as much as we value gold?

Gold is a measure of growth and success in our economy, it is also how we show our engagement to someone we love.
What if goals measured our growth and success and showed our engagement to be all we can be?

Goals are a way to conquer life, to stop being a victim and start being a decision-maker. Life can either be seen as a succession of challenges to bring us down or a succession of opportunities to make us grow. And the difference in perception is found in having a goal and being open to grow. Growth is the objective of all life on this planet. If you think of plants and animals it is clearly their main target. Think of a dandelion for example, how many seeds is each plant carrying? More than we like, right? The dandelion does not think, but its pattern of reproduction is to ensure the growth and survival of the specie. As human beings, how do we grow? And I am not talking physically.

It seems there are 2 main philosophies on this:
Life happens and you deal with it. You learn by accepting what Life as delt for you without questioning or trying to resist the situation. You are powerless. You are a victim.
Or, you bargain with Life, giving and taking to get what you want. You have made the decision to reach an objective that fulfills your sense of worthiness. You have a purpose.

Your purpose is the end product and the goals are the milestones you need to get to in order to get there. And as we know, in any project there is a serie of steps that need to be taken to see the completion of the goal. When you are making a meal for example, you can already envision all the dishes on the table and the people sitting enjoying the meal. You know, because you have done it in the past, that there are several steps to take before enjoying the meal. You are not on a new journey, in the unknown.

A purpose and its goals are supposed to help us grow and become a bigger and better version of ourself. When we stretch our mind and imagine something new, we do not know all the actions needed to get to where we can enjoy the end product. There is a bit of confusion. And many times it is where we remain stuck. In the absence of clarity we are paralyzed by fear, just like when we were kids and we were afraid to go outside in the dark of night. That is, until we discovered the conforting security of a flashlight. The obscurity had not vanished, but we were comforted to see the few steps in front of us. Likely, our goals are to be our inspiration in the darkest hours, to help us focus on the next step we need to take to reach the next milestone on this map of the journey we created for ourself.

There are 6 key components to achieving your goals and your purpose: visualizing, planning, acting, evaluating, setting a time frame and writing it down.

1. Visualization will assist you in making what you have dreamed a reality. It has been proven scientifically that when an athlete visualizes his performance the same muscles, nerves, neurones fire as when he is actually competing. When you imagine vividly, with as many of your five senses as possible, the mind thinks it is real and he then tries to correspond to that reality.

2. Planning only occurs if you think your dream can be a reality. It allows you to make it feasable, to reduce it to smaller pieces, like the expression that says the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. A plan also helps you to deal with the fear of the unknown. Your past experiences serve you as a foundation to stand upon to take your leap.

3. Actions reinforce your beliefs in your own abilities and move you forward, closer to your dream. Without action there is no progression, no growth.

4. Evaluation serves as a measure of the progress and allows you to pick a different strategy if you are not getting the results you were expecting from this course of action.

5. Setting a date helps you create a sense of urgency and control your tendancy to procrastinate. Without a date it is easy to be nonchalant and postpone your actions indefinitely. A word of caution: if you did not reach your goal by the set date, it does not mean you failed but that the date was wrong. Unfortunately at this point in our evolution we do not have the awareness to know with certainty when a thought becomes physically tangible. We are still guessing. And setting a date is just a guess, not a measure of success or failure.

6. Writing your purpose and your goals make them tangible and give you a reference point when you are going downhill and you get discouraged. It will help you to remember why you are on this journey and to stay focused. Growing is not only a succession of successes. Some challenges are to be expected… That’s what life is all about.

Can you imagine a life where you clearly know where you are going? You have seen your target afar and you have hit it with your arrow, to which was attached a rope. Now you only need to hold the rope, take the steps, go around the obstacles and be on the journey. You have faith because you know that it is only a matter of time before you reach your target. It sounds easy, right? And it is the feeling that your purpose and goals will create.

However, gold has never mined itself. It has come in the possession of humans only after efforts on their part. And it will be the same for your goal. You will be rewarded and will have a sense of purpose and making a difference only if you make a decision and set goals to achieve it. Your goal is worth gold.