Goals With Soul
Part of my Sunday is devoted to casting my vision for the coming year. I find myself in this weird observation of time speeding by at breakneck pace; my oldest is well established on his own, and my youngest is nearing the time to leave the nest in a couple of years. I definitely don’t feel sense of impending dread or mortality, but I do feel like I’m in this strange bubble of impending transition and new horizons. then again, the approaching new year also adds to the feeling.
The changeover from one decade to another also adds to the sense of an extra loud “TOC” of the life clock. For me, it’s time to take stock. The last 10 years of my life have been filled with SO MUCH change. Three different careers, multiple homes and a personal evolution that has, at times, kicked my butt. It was so bumpy that, for a while, I pressed pause on my annual goal setting because I was so far off from my goals each time I did it, and fell into an incorrect belief that it was because goal-setting doesn’t work rather than looking at the deeper lesson that I was misaligned with my Soul calling for a while. It’s OK, we all have detours from time to time, some are longer than others.
My last huge detour was in 2017 and I am incredibly grateful that I finally took the time to listen at that point because since taking the time during that year to tune in deeply, and listen to my internal alignment, I’ve been able to settle back into a sense of forward movement and true upleveling.
What do I mean when I talk about being in alignment with Soul? Alignment is defined as the act of aligning or state of being aligned especially : the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts in relation to each other. A locked door can only be unlocked by a key that shifts the locks components into alignment for the door to be unlocked, opened. When you are in alignment with your Soul goals, the door to life unlocks and opens up with more ease. And sometimes, much like a key that sticks in the lock before being able to fully unlock, we have lessons to learn that stick around until they are deeply learned and we can release and move on.
How do you know if your goals are aligned with your Soul, your deep You that taps you on the shoulder from time to time saying, try this, go here, talk to this person? The first step is to ask; you can do this through meditation and journalling - and to do it consistently, building a relationship filled with trust as you would with any solid human being. Do your goals excite you? Terrify you? Do they energize you or create exhaustion within your being? These are all clues. I have found that when I am aligned with my goals, I feel excitement within my whole Self; it’s not necessarily without an element of fear, because any time we set our sights on something we do not yet have, there is an uncertainty that calls for us to grow beyond our comfort zone. Are you willing to go there? The stretch into this uncertainty and fear is where the magic takes place, where we’re called to learn new ways of being, new ways of learning, and new ways of showing up. You have to do things you’ve never done before to achieve what you haven’t yet achieved.
I want to highlight that I’m not just talking about material goals. As I shifted from 2018 to 2019, one of my goals was to deepen my connection with my Soul, to improve my meditation practice and generally feel more connected and calm in my life. I incorporate how I want to feel and be as I forge the path to my tangible goals such as business milestones or vacation destinations.
So where do you begin? Begin with stillness, grab your favourite warm beverage, and settle into a calm mental space; yes, I recommend meditation and that might be different for some of you, but that mental stillness is what you want to aim for so that you can shift into a state where you can really listen to that inner voice. Once you’ve tuned in, begin to write, letting your imagination carry your dreams through your fingers, to the page and see what unfolds. Are you casting goals that call to you or that you think you SHOULD have. Notice whether you’re holding yourself back, whether you have the urge to write down specific goals but then brush them off as ridiculous. Are you censoring yourSelf? Cut that out, just write down what bubbles up from your consciousness! It might surprise you and that’s wonderful, welcome the surprise because there’s magic there! When you’ve let it all flow out onto the page, re-read it and ask yourSelf what stands out, what strikes the match of excitement within you and which ones feels more muted.
Now prioritize. Which one would you like to call into creation first? Maybe there are a couple of things on the list that you want to happen in tandem and others are longer term, that’s cool, just organize them on the page because some of what you just wrote out might fit more into a 5 year plan - don’t let timelines stop you.
Next, ask yourSelf what growth you need in order to move towards each of the ones that spark that excitement. Gauge the distance; do you need to take a class to learn more about it before it can become reality, do you need to save money for it, are you waiting on something from someone else before you can press go? Or maybe nothing is in the way and you just need to make a decision on it and go for it?
This is the rough road map. Your job is to keep on track and check in regularly to make sure the course is clear and if there are any detours, they’re simply that, detours; not a full stop. Detours often come about when we need to learn or unlearn something deeply in order to make the rest of the journey more easeful. During the pauses and detours, I like to recommend hiring a coach to help you observe things from a different perspective, to see what the route of the obstacles are and clear them with ease and support. The beauty is that with each step of the way, YOU get to decide. Do you stay in your own way or do you let go of the obstacle and keep moving forward, listening to the call from within? The more you shift into that alignment, the louder that call will be, cheering you on.
XO Jessica