Jumpstart Your Goals

December. What a glorious month. The last month out-shines all the others, with its festive spirit and positive outlook. It turns the ordinary into the magical, and non-believers into believers.

I enjoy December because I love the anticipation of a new beginning. I enjoy it so much that I often jumpstart my goals in December when I am excited for a new experiment. I see goals as experiments. I try something new for a set period of time to see if the new activity improves my life. If it doesn’t, then I cut short the experiment. If it does, then I stick with it for as long as it helps me.

Activities that you enjoy are easy to add to your daily routine. As something that is enjoyable, the activity gives you a boost of energy every time you engage. The problem is that most of us set goals around activities we do not enjoy. And then wonder why we fail.

Goals that focus on activities that you do not enjoy are on the verge of extinction because most of us cannot, over the long term, force ourselves to do something we don’t, on some level, enjoy. Which I see as a positive attribute of the human race. We are so freedom oriented, we won’t bully ourselves into doing something we do not want to do.

Setting goals to add in more activities that you enjoy is one way to jumpstart your new-year goal setting. Where can I add more of what I love and what I value into my every day? Where can I excel doing activities I love? Where can I obtain fulfillment doing an activity that brings me closer to my wants?

I see wants as being broader than a goal. A goal is but one way to get what you want, whereas a want can be satisfied in many, many ways. Your goals are mere glimpses into the soul that holds your wants.

Once you see a goal as but one path, you can more easily step back and love where you are, to honor the want that is lurking behind the specific goal you have selected. The want holds a lot of power over you. The want has a lot of potential for you. The want operates on a level that is hard to understand until you see yourself as the spirit within.

Take any goal you hold and ask yourself why. Why do I want this narrow goal? Why do I want this goal at all? Why I am called to move in this direction?

That’s what a goal is. It is movement in one direction in order to satisfy a want inside you that burns bright. Many of us have specific goals. Yet when you peel back from that narrow goal, you will find some soul level wants that differ for each of us.

If you took a group of people who set a goal to lose weight, and asked them to list their Whys, those reasons would be as unique as they are. Each Why statement would be different. And each Why statement would show us a broader want behind the narrow goal. One person might be motivated by a desire for better health; another may be motivated by a desire to fit into certain clothes; and still another could be motivated to feel more in love with her body. Each Why statement shows us that there are true wants that are propelling you forward toward the narrow goal you have set.

Each Why statement shows us that there are true wants that are propelling you forward toward the narrow goal you have set.

And your best path is to unearth and tend to your broader wants.

Your wants are desires to cherish. Any desire you hold is a sign of life sprouting out from you. It’s glorious to have wants. When I repress, or step on, my own wants, I feel low and depressed. So I welcome in all my wants, as pieces of me come forward to show me the way.

Wants also have the benefit of being broad and open-ended. They can be satisfied in many ways. Also, finding your why is like digging for gold. Once you find your true motivation, you tap into a resource that will not only help you accomplish your goal, it will help you see other avenues to satisfy the want.

Which is why I say, put your focus on your true want (the Why statement). A true want is always a feeling that you are chasing. A true want always goes to the core of our being. A true want is something we want so much, that we build up fear around it.

You only fear that which you truly want, so allow that fear to help you to see your true want, hiding behind your narrow goal. The fear has made the want grow stronger, which means its a powerful motivator for your life.

I, for one, like to play the odds. I tend to choose the path of least resistance. The paths that give me the greatest chance of success. Which is why I put my focus on the true wants behind any goal my mind cooks up. When I adjust my focus, other paths come into view that help me get to the feeling place all the sooner.

Where are you chasing a goal that is too narrow? Where could you focus on the true want behind the goal and see new avenues to success? Where could you adjust your perspective by putting more focus on the true want?