“Knowing what you want is the first step towards getting it.” – Mae West
Posted on March 26, 2018 by Nelson Lopez, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
There Is A Goal Within Every Goal
Have you ever set a goal only to come to the end of the road feeling empty, tired and wanting more? Thinking it would bring you happiness but feeling no different after having achieved it?
This can happen from placing too much focus on the object instead of what achieving it will allow you to do, be or have. The object in hand is not enough.
Having One Million Dollars Is Not The Goal
Suppose you set a goal of having one million dollars and someone hands you a bag of money containing that exact amount. The money is yours to keep and you don’t ever have to pay it back. However, there is one condition: you can do anything you want with the money except spend it.
You quickly realize that having the million dollars is not the goal. The object in hand is not enough. The goal is in whatever the money will allow you to do.
Every goal comes with a benefit which is greater than the object. It is when we learn to set our goals from that perspective that we can learn to focus on the real prize.
A powerful way to do that is by first becoming aware of how we are feeling at the moment compared to how we will feel after achieving the goal. The present feeling, or state, can be described as a feeling of lack or scarcity which can be remedied by achieving the goal we want to reach; the feeling we want to have after having reached that goal.
Looking at it from this perspective lets us understand that it’s not the outcome that we desire as much as the feeling we experience after we’ve acquire it.
By “working it backwards”, from the point of our desired state, we are better able to locate and cultivate what it is that we really desire. We also make better action-based decisions to get us there, rather than grabbing at random objects or travelling to places where we think we will find what we desire.
Ask yourself these questions:
How is this of value to me?
What will having it get or do for me?
What would be my goal after doing that?
What will achieving that allow me to do or have or be?
Your goals are a journey in alignment with who and what you are and not a destination.
