Who You Become By Achieving Goals

As high achievers, waking up with purpose is crucial.  The perpetual goal setting and drive for achievement constantly pushes us forward.

However, the real purpose isn’t to achieve the goal in the first place.  It’s actually all about the journey.

If you were challenged to make one million dollars and then give it all away, think of the kind of person you would become in the process of working to achieve that goal.  You would be faced with many obstacles, you would have to get creative, meet a lot of people, and force yourself to step outside your comfort zone to do things that you’ve never done before.

The person who you are becoming while working to achieve your goal is transformational.  You become a better person along the journey.

That is why you must set the kind of goals that will make something of you to achieve them.  It’s not setting easy to attain goals, or ones that are impossible to reach.  But, setting goals that will challenge you and allow you to grow along the way.  The journey will make you a better person for simply working to achieve the goal.

When you set a goal to start working out, it’s not about completing the workout.  It’s becoming the person who does workouts.  Start by visualizing how you will feel when you’re done with the workout.  You’re proud of yourself, you’re not a quitter, and you’re becoming the person who exercises.  This gives you motivation to keep going.

Focus on the progress you’re making toward reaching the goal.  You’re learning and growing each step of the way.  This brings us more fulfillment and happiness in life.

After you achieve a big goal you’re sometimes faced with the question of what’s the next goal to work on. A terrible feeling creeps over you as you wonder if you’ve done everything you’ve been put here to do. That’s why you must make life about the journey and growing.  When you adopt this way of thinking, you won’t have to worry about what your next goal is.  You just continue learning.

Goal setting is not about achieving the goal itself, it’s about becoming the person in the process. Put forth the effort to do your best. Even if you fail to achieve the goal, the person who you have become will be miles ahead of where you started. Along the way you’ve learned so much and grown to become a better person.

If you were to invite the person you were when you first started, that version would be very different than the person you have become today after working toward you goal.  You had fears and stories you were telling yourself along the journey.  Perhaps these stories were you’re not cut out for this or you can’t do this.  But, you continued to put forth the effort.  Now you have all this experience and more confidence in yourself.  You have new stories that say you can do this.

What changed between then and now is that you’ve grown as a person and that has made you better than you were.  If you look back to where you were and where you are now you’ll realize how far you’ve come. You’ve learned so much in the process.

The goal isn’t to achieve the goal, but it’s what it will make of you to achieve it.  It’s who you are becoming along the journey.  This is the person you continually strive to be. The person that is a little bit better each day than the last.