A balanced approach to goal setting

There are two ends of the spectrum on how we live our life: intentionally - where we make choices and are an active participant in creating our life, and passively - where we are at the mercy of the world around us.

Each end of the spectrum has its place, but to stay there would be unwise. At one end that would look like micromanaging life with no room for collaboration. The other would be being passive to the point of being a victim that takes no responsibility.

Like most things, humans do best when they are somewhere around the middle - with the capacity to do either extreme if required.

To lessen our micromanaging skills we must learn to moderate our desire to react to every thought we have.

Humans have somewhere around 100,000 thoughts a day, the majority of which are identical to the day before. A large proportion of these are irrelevant, unnecessary and of no value to your present moment experience. Nonetheless, a micromanager will listen diligently to each and every thought and react, trying to mitigate a scenario that isn't happening or prevent an event that already did. The micromanager does not trust life or the people around them. They believe that they must bring everything into creation themselves or it won't happen.

On the flip side, the victim sees no point to making any effort at all because they have already decided the outcome will be the same no matter what. They bring nothing to the table and that way they cannot be blamed or shamed for how things are. They make life responsible for their situation and a usually highly negative.

To sit in the middle of all of this is to know that we must partner and collaborate with life whilst setting a direction for ourselves. This looks a lot like having a goal but being open to achieving it in many different ways.

Goal setting

Goals are the domain of the heart. Our heart tells us what we desire. When we have what we desire, our heart feels happy and harmonious. It feels open and joyful. It gives us energy in abundance to move forwards in our chosen direction.

The next step in this journey is to use our head brain/intelligence to generate creative ways to achieve the goal. This is a constructive use of our creativity and imagination. Our mind loves to come up with ideas and suggestions and this is a very healthy way to channel that behaviour.

Once the head has come up with creative solutions, it is then necessary to pass them back through the heart to check they are in alignment with our original intention.

If our ideas pass that check, then it is for those suggestions to pass to the gut brain which is the engine that drives us taking action and moving forwards.

Each brain within our body plays an important role in our success.

Without the heart's desire, we have no compass.

Too much head brain activity and not enough gut brain courage means we never move forwards.

Too much gut brain courage without thinking things through means we're rash and ineffective.

Now you know a bit more, which end of the spectrum are you? Micromanager or victim? Or somewhere in the middle?

#mbraining