Happy New Year! 2019, we made it!
Iâm writing to you from the empty Bogota hotel restaurant still covered with balloons and yellow underwear decor from last nightâs celebrations. Dancing, rooftop fireworks, and sounds of 80s music paired with Latin favorites brought in 2019 with some flair. I hope you had a good one too, celebrations big or small.
Now that the confetti has settled and the first coffee of the year is kicking in, time for reflection and goal setting for the year ahead. Itâs too early to be too precise but getting the big ideas on paper is where I always start. To get the mind going, Iâve found the Goal Setting Refined method to be a big help in getting ideas out there. If youâre in the market for a quick exercise to do the same, check it out here.
You can start with the video here: https://blog.mindvalley.com/goal-setting-redefined/ . If you want to hop into the three question framework, jump in here:
THREE QUESTIONS FOR GOAL SETTING
The most successful people think in terms of âwhat could be?â not âwhat it is?â. Be very impractical in your goal setting. Donât start with what you have now. Pretend that magic can happen and you can have everything you need to achieve your goal. The only request is that you reach your goal. Donât be realistic in imagining these goals.
A good goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot. If it doesnât scare you, you arenât dreaming big enough. If it doesnât excite you, you havenât picked a good end goal.
Create three columns to answer the following three questions. Ask for everything - donât limit your list.
What experiences do I want in my life?
We are souls having a physical experience. You do not have a soul, you are a soul, what you have is a body - CS Lewis.
To be mesmerized and see the beauty of the world. To have children. To have the human experience. Experience of dining, living, art, anything that is living experience.
- What experiences/objects do you want to have in this lifetime?
- Dining vacationing in the best places, flying first class everywhere, who will you be? Seeing the best art. Having kids. Dining and vacationing. Married to an amazing person. If I had all of these experiences, who would I be? That is the clue to the next column define all the ways you want to grow.
- What type of love experiences do you want to have? What type of friends do you want to have? What would your social circles look like? What type of money experiences look like? What type of network would you have? Where do you want to work from? Do you want to parent? Be happy?
There are two great spiritual needs, if you do not fulfill these needs, your spirit will be deprived. Growth and contribution. - Tony Robbins.
We are here to grow and learn. To be reminded of our potential, to challenge our brain, to pick up new skills.
- How do you want to grow? (make more money, learn a new language, parent)
- Learning can be an end goal.
How do I want to contribute to the world?
We are all connected. The entire planet early is one organism and weâre all connected to everything in it. When you think about that as a model, the petty things donât make sense anymore. - Gaia Hypothesis
Contribution becomes paramount, way to have meaning is contribute to other human beings. When you contribute, happiness goes up.
- If I was so blessed that I had all of these things, how can I give back to the world? What do you want to contribute to the world?
All three of these things connect, they answer: what you want, who you need to be to achieve those, and what you want to give back when I have those things. This is a blueprint for your soul. Itâs unique to you.
The next step is to build actionable steps to head towards the goals you want to achieve.
May 2019 be the best year for you yet!