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A New Way to Think About Goals

Cory Muscara

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Cory Muscara

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A New Way to Think About Goals

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session we're going to talk

about the journey of achieving your goals.

I'd like to share a quote by Henry

David Thoreau that I recently

came across and I really like.

He says, "What you get by

achieving your goals is not as

important as what you become."

What you get by achieving your goals

is not as important as what you become.

I think one of the reasons I really like

this is because when we think of goals

or I won't put this on you, I'll just

say for myself personally, when I think

of goals, there's this feeling of, you

know, the accomplishment or the goodness

of it comes at some point in the future.

I'm working towards something and

once I finally get there, then there

will be release, then there'll be the

fulfillment I was looking for, sense of

satisfaction, or I could finally relax.

And so it's, it's some moment in the

future that I'm working toward and

I sort of just have to get through

everything in the meantime to get there.

But, uh, you know, as important

as I think goals have been in my

life, I I've always struggled with

this future orientation with them.

And this quote really invites

us all to re-imagine the journey

toward achieving those goals.

And who do we have to

become to get to this goal?

What within us needs to get activated?

In what ways do we need to grow?

And that's a different orientation

toward the goal setting

and goal achieving process.

Yes.

Getting the goal, accomplishing

it, getting to that future moment

can be extremely satisfying and

we should allow ourselves to

appreciate it once we get there.

But most of our life is

happening in between.

It's happening in the journey.

And so what would it be like to, to set

goals that really inspire us to become

a certain person, set goals that make

us think, you know, who would I have to

become to be able to achieve that goal?

Or just to look at the goals that

we're currently working toward

and think, you know, in what

ways am I changing right now?

Who am I becoming, trying

to get to this goal?

And appreciate that as much,

if not more, than the actual

attainment of the goal itself.

Just something to think about.

Maybe it will resonate in the same way.

It resonated for me.

Thanks so much for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.

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