I heard something the other day that stopped me in my tracks: Your goal is to become the person that is willing to do what it takes to achieve all of your goals.  All this time I’d been considering my goal as achieving a specific thing.  Look at the target and do what it takes to get there.  But when we look at the concept of flow, we need to consider that it may be the wrong way to go about it.  Rather than focusing on the task by itself, we should consider the all around purpose of the goal and what that life looks like when the goal is achieved.  Now, this isn’t for everything—if your goal is to purchase a book, then get to the bookstore or purchase it online.  But for the goals that seem out of reach, out of our realm, we need to look at who we are.  Are we repeating old patterns that keep us from the goal?  Doing what we always did because it’s familiar?  Or are we taking the steps to make the different decision?  Are we becoming the person who makes those new decisions as naturally as the old ones? 

We are such a task oriented, see-it-to-believe-it, go-it-alone, accolades and achievement based society that we forget introspection and connection.  We are trained that way.  We are trained to ignore the thoughts and feelings that get us where we want to be, where we are meant to be in favor of what we are told we are supposed to do.  I’m not saying that there is a huge distinction between being goal oriented and being the person who achieves the goal, but I am saying that when we seek to check something off the list, it’s not as satisfying as creating the life we want.  It’s the difference between getting a fish and learning to fish.  Uncovering the root of who we are and who we are meant to be and focusing on those goals.

I started doing a life analysis, considering some of my major goals and what it takes to be that person.  I also went so far as to ask what a person who lives that life looks like, what they would do.  It became pretty evident that there is a gap.  Now, this isn’t too far from what we’ve talked about with goal setting before.  In general it was setting the goal, seeing where we’re at in relation to the goal, then doing what it takes to get there.  But when it comes to being the person who makes those goals naturally, there are a few more intricacies.  We have to be more aware of those initial thoughts and taking the pause between thought and action.  The process is the same, but the focus bears an important difference: being the person who lives the life rather than the person who strives to live the life. It isn’t just about the goal, it’s about being that way consistently.  Then the decisions come naturally and soon we don’t have to think about it—we simply are it.