Henry David Thoreau said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” That quote lines up perfectly with doing Coach Moore’s Definite Major Purpose exercise last year. Along with that exercise, I was also challenged to write a statement of what I wanted. This is where my goals would come in.

I believe that establishing a process of goal setting that works for you can bring more of what you want into your life. Breaking a goal into smaller bite sized pieces can also make it more manageable vs trying to tackle everything all at once. I’ve also found that just being around others doing/ learning what it is you’re working into is very encouraging. I’ve had so many new ideas about what I wanted since completing these exercises and have made small changes to my routine because of this process. I know I want to grow as a person and get out of my comfort zone. So, my goals are set to benchmark my progression further out of my comfort zone, highlighting areas I hesitate to engage in. They have roots in my purpose and in becoming my ideal self. Now, when I set goals, they align with this statement:

“I want my life to be the experience of a lifetime! To reflect that I was courageous and was willing to do the work. The hard, deep work that will lead me to what I wanted most. I want to feel valued and appreciated by the lives I’ve come into contact with. I want my life to be one without regrets and show that I was willing to try, come up short, and get up again to face difficulties ahead.”

Some people struggle with goals lists and goal setting, and I’ll add my name to the list. I’m not perfect and haven’t hit everything I’ve set out to. But that’s ok. It’s a process and I figured out that reviewing my goals quarterly works better for me and I can address changing priorities. Over the last year, the journey looks much further along looking back at where I started. If you took small, specific step toward becoming your ideal self, where would you want to be?