I used to think goals were about the goal itself. I would attain the goal and then somehow I would reach a sense of inner satisfaction. Or I would rebel against setting goals because somehow I felt the striving and the routine was too much pressure on myself.
As I change and grow, I’ve become to feel differently about them. I no longer care so much what the goal happens to be. I care what working on a particular goal will teach me, what the process of that goal will help me become.
People often ask about when I will write another book. In some weird way, none of my books have been about creating the book itself. When deep inside there is something I need to process, something I need to work through – the book flows out like water.
My first book was about learning to believe in myself. My second book was about learning forgiveness. I sense there is a third book, but it is not yet time. Trying to write it before it’s time is like trudging through cement, forcing a solution. When I’m ready, I will know.
I notice that I struggled with fitness goals in the past. I found a million justifications and then I would beat myself up. I wasn’t ready.
Now I find that it’s weirdly easy and I crave it. Solutions come to me. Problems that seemed baffling disappear.
It’s no longer that I particularly want to be fit. It’s that my fitness goals are teaching me to make myself a priority. They are teaching me consistency. They are teaching to process anger and frustration and irritation before it builds up. I wake up and I feel strong and I treasure that feeling. I feel drawn toward people with similar goals that have become my anchor in this pandemic. New adventures are opening up.
So, now when I think I want a new goal. I ask myself why. How will this goal help me become the person I want to be? Why do I want it?
If the why is strong enough, you will always discover the how.
