Reach Goals Faster, Reverse the Process
We have been programmed to think that we should have goals and dreams in life and these are the driving forces to success. However, life can often get in the way and we can easily be led astray and end up in a totally different place. You can be focused, driven and goal-oriented at the same time but that doesn’t stop life’s challenges.
Quite often, I make it a habit of asking older people who I come across if they have any regrets. They always do, some more than others. If you ask a younger person if they have dreams, they always do (let’s hope), some more than others.
I ask the older people because I’m curious as to what life must be like on the other side after you have lived it. Then I realized, besides age, there is an inherent difference between a young person and an older person, the young person has ambition and the old person has intuition. The young person doesn’t know and dreams and the older person knows and has regrets.
To that end, I could not help but to wonder what happens in the middle of life? If you are between 30 and 60 this is most of us and you are probably neutral in your thinking as you may not have dreams, goals or regrets because life has gotten in the way. Is it too late?
Perhaps not, not when you really think about it and look at it in the Perspective from the BEG-ending: What is that? it’s a combination of the Beginning and the End. (from my perspective of course) but it’s for people in the middle.
I have no problem writing down goals and attempting to check them off. Almost ALWAYS I fail at doing this because I keep getting sidetracked with something else. In other words, life gets in the way.
It’s very easy for me to come up with a list of 10 things to do but not much more beyond that. Then I was reading quotes on “Changes” and “Regrets” a while back and I thought about something. . . change is inevitable and there is little to nothing that we can do about it but What if we COULD do something about “Regrets? “By the time we get to our 70s or 80s, God willing, it’s pretty much too late (but not impossible) but if you are between 30 and 60 you are still in your prime.
I love statistics and sample populations and I thought to myself, what If we made a list of all the things we would regret if I died tomorrow. . . while we are still young enough to make changes? I know, thinking about the end before you are ready can be intimidating and frightening but people die everyday at all ages so this is one of life’s challenges that we have no control over. .and . or do we? What if your “Goal” was to make a list of what you would “Regret” if you were on your deathbed tomorrow?
If one of your “Regrets” is that you didn’t take better care of yourself, then it’s possible that you can actually save yourself. As stated, I can come up with 10 things that I need to do when it comes to goals but when I did the “What if? ” list I came up with 53 things damn near off the top of my head that I would regret.
I was amazed that the list was that long. I typed it out and I read the list everyday and there are things I have to keep adding but I’m also able to subtract some things and the beauty of it is, as long as God is willing, it’s not to late to reverse those regrets for any of us while we are still young enough to do it and change our focus. “Regrets” during middle age are “Dreams and Goals” in reverse because you are doing it with the end in mind instead of the future, which you don’t have in this moment.
I hope that you do the list to and keep me posted on how it works out for you. I can say for me, it has motivated me like nothing else in volume instead of increments. What I mean by that is your perspectives become more specific instead of vague.
My Best, K
