Getting Older and Reviewing Goals

     Usually when a person turns a milestone age, they often panic. Why? Well, we all have different reasons; ‘I’m getting old’ and ‘What have I done with my life?’, seem to be quite common questions.  When I turned 25 years old, I went into panic mode.  All I could think was that I was really leaving my childhood and younger self for adulthood and responsibility.  Yikes! 

     I thought for sure that 40 was going to be another one of those panic years but I was wrong. I didn’t actually feel 40 and thought, who cares how many years I’ve been on this earth, what matters is how old I feel on the inside.  This year, at 43 years of age, I’m starting to feel that little twinge again as I approach 45(It’s half way to the next decade).  50 is a big number and we put so much emphasis on this birthday and pressure on ourselves, it’s no wonder we dread the BIG 5-0. 

     I previously wrote about this self-help journey I’ve begun in my post “Being Happy” and even though a lot of this might sound like fluff or new-age mumbo jumbo to some of you, we all need to find our way in our own way.  I’ve decided to approach the rest of my life, head on and I’ll take whatever help I can get.  So along with Chakra Healing and daily affirmations, I came across this post about setting goals.  I’ve had more than one person tell me how important it is to set goals, but it always felt superficial, like I was setting goals that others expected of me instead of what was important to me. But this video spoke to me (http://www.mindvalley.com/goal-setting-redefined?#sthash.78wPZjwS.dpbs) and redefined my view of goals. I want to share some of the things I learned(or you can watch the video, yourself).

     According to this video, there are two types of goals; End Goals – end results of being human. They’re about experiencing love, travelling, being truly happy, our contributions to the planet and learning new skills, while Means Goals – are the things that we are told we need to have in place to get happiness, like getting good grades, getting into post-secondary education, getting into a particular firm, being with a particular someone, or getting good reviews at work.

“THE PROBLEM IS THAT WE GET SO OBSESSED OVER THE MEANS GOALS THAT WE LOSE SIGHT OF THE END GOALS”.       –Vishen Lakhiani, Mindvalley    

There are three questions to ask yourself.

1.        What to I want to experience out of life?

2.       How do I want to grow?

3.       What to I want to contribute to the planet?

     I realized that I was on the right track with my goals and I didn’t even know it.  I did add a few new things like starting or joining a supper club, learning to run a successful business, most likely a café/bookstore, learning tai chi, and volunteering in my community. I feel like I’m one step closer to my happy place and getting older isn’t such a big deal.

Bis Bald!