The Truth About Setting Goals

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

~Yogi Berra

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Whether we like it or not, time keeps on passing. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, just… go by.

Understanding this can be pretty scary. But, it can also be one of the most powerful motivators in guiding us to live our fullest life.

Think about something big you want to accomplish in your lifetime — taking a yoga teacher training course, learning a language, writing a book, climbing a mountain — and write it down.

For me, I knew I wanted to become a yoga teacher from my very first yoga class. Two years later I attended a yoga instructor training immersion, and have been slowly carving out a life I absolutely love, doing what I love. (If you're interested in finding the yoga training that's best for you, check out our guide here.)

So what's your goal? Let's say it's, “I want to climb a mountain in my lifetime.”

Now, once you've accomplished it, how did that make you feel? Excited? Afraid? Probably a little of both, right?

Just writing a goal down can be scary, but here’s the thing: Writing it down is one of the first steps to manifesting that goal, that idea, that dream, into reality.

So now what? Well, like my husband (and Al Pacino from the movie Any Given Sunday) tells me, “Life is a game of inches,” and we have to work to get those inches to add up to a win. Every inch counts, and the game has already started.

If I want to climb a mountain someday, I need to get specific. I need to figure out where it is I really want to go and when I want to get there.  So, “I want to climb a mountain in my lifetime,” needs to change.  Maybe I change it to, “I have climbed Mount Everest by my 50th birthday.”

Now my heart begins to race. Where do I even start? I start by taking it step by step. Inch by inch. I learn how to mountain climb. I start practicing right now. I look up indoor climbing gyms, and have a membership to one by the end of the month. I cut my nails, and start using my manicure money for climbing gear. (What are you willing to give up for what you really want?)

In 6 months, I go on a rock climbing trip with my new indoor-rock climbing buddies. In a year, I am well on my way to Mount Everest, and I have a group of friends I have made who are working on the same goal. In fact, those inches toward the goal become my life, and through these experiences I am living with purpose, fervor, and passion. When I am engaged in the activities that light me up, whether it be mountain climbing or yoga or writing, I feel that passion resonating within me. It is in these moments I am living from my center.

Five years go by and I have climbed Mount Everest, and I am not even 40 years old. I have attained my Mount Everest goal and couldn’t be happier.

Alternatively, I start practicing mountain climbing, do the gym thing, go on the rock-climbing trip with my new buddies, and…. I decide I like kayaking a lot more, and mountain climbing actually isn’t my passion. I can change my goal. The time has gone by, and I have learned something about myself in the process. I still win.

Or, I can decide to write down nothing at all, not to create any goals, and just let the time pass. One year goes by, then two, then ten. And I wake up one day, wondering where the time went.

We have to remember: this is the only opportunity we will get to live this life, and experience what this existence has to offer. So, why not live aligned with your passion? Get clear on what you desire, and start making choices that support those desires. Do some personal inquiry. Figure out what it is that you really want to happen. What you seek is seeking you. The sooner you start living like the person you want to become, the sooner you will become that person. Time is going to pass anyway — we might as well make it count.

Want to learn more about setting, and actually sticking, to your goals? Tiffany Fortune and Mary Waugh are leading a workshop to help you jumpstart you on the road to feeling great:

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Change Your Core Status: A Goal-Setting Workshop

Thursday, June 30th, 2016

6:30PM-9:00PM

Strengthen your core and your commitment to change!

Workshop includes:

Goal Setting: How to make a plan and actually stick to it

Eliminating Sugar

A 1-Hr Core Yoga Practice for all Levels