“We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives … not looking for flaws, but for potential.” – Ellen Goodman
At the beginning of a new year, it is common to look ahead and make plans for that year. People often set goals, and unfortunately, a majority do not follow through with those goals. And, then there are the over-achievers, who have set so many goals, they become overwhelmed. They are driven to complete those goals, but often feel stressed and behind the eight-ball.
This is often how I felt. I would set a goal. Work really hard to achieve it. Be excited for a short bit after achieving it, but then the next day was back to striving for another goal. I felt like I really wasn’t living, but was on an endless treadmill.
Sometimes we make goal planning too complicated. Instead of it giving us freedom, we can become tied too much to the future and not really living in the present.
Turning Desires into Vision
The only future worth living is a big vision, not steps of finite goals. Goals are only action steps, but if this is all we are looking at, we get cut off from the bigger picture. Our life becomes living each day as a task instead of really living. So you need to start with a big picture. I call it a personal vision.
A personal vision is what makes you uniquely you. This is your purpose. What is the one thing you have been created for to give back and to impact others?
In my last article, I challenged you to take time to be quiet and as part of it to ask yourself, “What do you desire?” You may have had a tumult of emotions with many various desires or maybe one desire became crystal clear. I hope you took time to reflect and record what came out of this time. This can be a great place to start with defining your personal vision. Your desires connected with your strengths often help to define the purpose you are called to.
Turning Vision into Transformation
As your personal vision is revealed, you start to see more clearly who you are and want to become. Now this is worth living for. As you look ahead to your year, don’t ask what goals do you want to set. Instead ask, “What is the change I want to become?”
In the next article, we will discuss more how to do this. In the mean time, I want to check in with you. Are you coming back from the holidays feeling refreshed and renewed, or are you feeling tired? I hope that you also gave yourself a gift along with the gifts you gave others. I hope you gave yourself the gift of time. Did you take some extended quiet time to reflect? If not, it is still not too late to give yourself this gift.