Life Changing Goals

Like most people I get a little reflective at the beginning of the year and start thinking about goals and changes I’d like to make in myself. What my life is and what I’d like it to be are stark contrasts. My belief is that just like me, most people aren’t doing as well in life as they’d like.

I’ve come as far in life as can be reasonably expected doing things the way I’ve always done them. In order for my life to change and become more like I would like it to be I need to make some BIG changes. This is where the bulk of us fall down. I believe the most common hindrance to making big changes is the fear of failure.

This fear makes us set the bar much lower than is necessary to realize the big gains in life we hope to achieve. If you have a true passion for something then do that thing, don’t settle for a version of it. I know a couple corporate trainers that settled into that position after giving up on their ambitions to become a licensed teacher. They are just as unhappy as they were before they started down that career path. They settled an the illusory version of their dream rather than taking the hard road and going for the real thing.

Fear helps us talk ourselves down from the ledge. Life changing goals are scary. If we succeed then much greater opportunities and happiness await us. If we fail we face disappointment in ourselves. Forgive yourself; there are always bumps in the road and wrong turns. One of my favorite quotes is from Kurt Vonnegut “A step backward, after a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction”. Just remember that until you give up you haven’t failed.