Day 3
Meditation #6: Life Goals
Welcome to Day 3 of the 7 Day Challenge
Make sure to read everything below before starting your meditation. Enjoy!
The Trap
Many of us are stuck in the trap of doing, where we are in a constant cycle of moving but rarely, or in some cases never, thinking about how or why we are doing the things we are. Life can be quite stressful (if we do not get in under control) and we often find ourselves in a hole we never even realized we were digging.
In many cultures, following the status quo of getting an education, landing a good paying job, having the nice house, etc. are ingrained in us from a very young age. Without thinking too far into it or asking any questions we follow the flock and do as we are told. This is all fine if you want to live a “safe” life, but if you don’t follow the path of your heart, you will always be left with the feeling that something is missing.
Although I don’t want to get across the wrong idea that we all need to be rule breakers in order to live a life of purpose, I do want to stress how important it is to question the rules we are following. As we are going to learn in the coming meditations, the majority of people report being unfulfilled in their lives. Why is this? It’s because most people blindly do things without thinking about what they are actually doing. Recognizing this pattern and questioning the status quo are the first two steps in becoming the best version of yourself and accomplishing your life goals. I don’t know anyone living an extraordinary life who hasn’t at some point in their life decided enough is enough and started following their passion rather than the steps to success pamphlet they were handed when they graduated high school.
You can trade a life of purpose and adventure for a life of perceived security, but it will come with a hefty price tag.
How Are You, Really?
If you had to ask the tough question of whether you are living a fulfilling and purposeful life what would your answer be?
For most of us, there is something burning deep within that knows there is more to this life, regardless of how much we have covered it up with our busy lives. If you know that there is more to life and you have goals that you want to achieve and things you still want to experience, this meditation is going to help you get in tune with those goals and help you mentally organize them. Organizing our cluttered minds is the first step to achieving our goals.
Preparing For The Meditation
To prepare for this meditation, get ready to get in touch with a deep part of yourself. The part that dreams big and has endless potential. The part that, if not crushed by the analytical mind, has boundless potential to achieve anything we can dream up. In order to get in touch with this part of us, we have to shut off the analytical or thinking mind as it will try to limit us based on what it perceives is possible. It is important to note that the only thing the mind can perceive as possible are things it has successfully experienced. Therefore, anything we wish to achieve in life will be done by shutting off the thinking mind and entering the timeless space where anything is possible.
The Meditation
For this meditation I want you to begin thinking about your life goals. You want to allow whatever flows naturally to emerge and not try to force anything here. Really think deep into your past about what you wanted to do as a child. Think about your wildest dreams, even if you have currently accepted them as impossibilities.
Maybe you want to build a sustainable freshwater system for parts of the world where fresh water currently does not exist. If you think this sounds unrealistic, watch the movie Mully.
Perhaps you have dreams of becoming an artist but right now you’re the teller at a bank and you haven’t picked up a paint brush in 25 years.
Maybe you want to become a missionary and move overseas to build homes for the poor.
Maybe the 9 to 5 isn’t cutting it anymore and you’re ready to give it up to purse your passion of starting a nonprofit and raising money to help those in need.
Perhaps your just done with the busy life and you’re ready to move to a small home in the mountains where you will grow your own crops and live off the land.
Maybe you want to adopt a child who is currently in the foster system. Maybe you want to build your own foster system and help raise a community of children.
Whatever your goals are, think about them deeply and allow them to penetrate every cell of your body. Feel the emotions that will be released when you achieve them. Visualize yourself being there and notice how you feel. Rather than dreaming of achieving your goals at some future date, use this time to live your goals out right here and right now. Picture yourself raising the child who was once homeless and watch them go on to start a nonprofit of their own where they help homeless children get off the street and into a loving home. See your masterpiece on the wall in a major art museum. Be on stage touring with your best friends playing the music that you love. Picture yourself sitting back and relaxing enjoying the fruits of your labor and the feeling of accomplishing your goals.
Scriptures
Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Jeremiah 29:13 – “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Deuteronomy 4:29 – But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Ephesians 3:20 – Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
Tips/Reminders
- Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do
- The only things that are impossible are the things that we accept as impossible and therefore limit ourselves from achieving based on a false belief we hold