Everyone has heard of the saying if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. I realize now that's very true when it comes to personal goals.
Setting goals has always been a love of mine. It gave me direction and purpose. More than once I have set my sights on big targets and wonder why, so close to getting it, it didn't work out. This included wanting to study dance (with no formal training), to sitting for the final interview for joining an intelligence agency. Pretty random, huh?
A profound moment came to me when I realized what I needed was to take a look at my values. I had a bag full of values and half of them weren't even mine! It was no good to me to have a page full of goals that looked fantastic on paper, but that didn't truly come from my heart.
To counter this, I started by working on my foundation. What was it that really meant the most to me? What path in life did I truly desire to take? I found writing them down to be the most effective and to stop any of those ideals that weren't my own I did a short exercise where I couldn't overthink.
Dividing a page into three parts, I labeled each as follows: Career, Health, Personal. Focusing on one portion at a time, I thought about my ideal life and gave myself 30 seconds to scribble down the words that came to mind. Looking back on them now, for Career I put words like creative, individual and artistic. Had I done this simple exercise years before, I probably wouldn't have done that science degree that's just gathering dust now.
Knowing what I do now, that strong and heart-felt goals start with solid values, I am confident my choices in life will stay true to what I really want in life.
You can find this easy yet thoughtful exercise on the goaltender website and take your first step to making those dreams a reality with goal setting.
Georgia (shown above) was our talented photographer here at the SSC in Vancouver. She's sinced moved on to pursue goals to start her own business!
