Do you ever feel that you are not doing enough?
No matter how much you try, there is always someone who is doing it –
- Better
- Faster
- More often
When did their goals become yours?
Do you really know what it is you want?
Your Gut-Check Goal
There are endless resources for goal-setting in any number of areas of your life.
- Financial goals
- Professional goals
- Personal goals
While all those are productive, I always try to circle back to what I call my gut-check goal.
What’s a gut-check goal?
At the end of the day, it’s the single thing you want most out of life.
Your gut-check goal is big picture – not details.
- I want to be happy
- I want to be at peace
- I want to make a difference
Sounds simple, right?
Filtering the Noise
We think we know what it is we want and then our thoughts get drowned in the noise of life.
We allow others to define our success.
- Make 6 figures in just 6 months
- Travel the world while earning millions
- Hang with the A-listers
It’s not your success if your gut-check goal is telling you something else.
That happened to me.
- I spent 30+ years in Corporate America
- I reached the magical 6-figure income
- I was miserably unhappy
I entered the new world of owning my own business. I marvel at peers who seem to accomplish so much.
Then I turn off the noise – is that what I want?
Our answers are our own, so go out and own it.
I search for mine every day.
Defining Success
Bryan Franklin, an executive coach, presented a TEDxSinCity Talk where he shared the “most dangerous question” to ask yourself. It doesn’t come until the end of the Talk. So, to help the short-attention span person, I’ll spill the beans.
- Imagine you have nothing to prove – you have all the validation you want.
- You have nothing to lose and nothing to hide.
- Then ask yourself – what do you want?
When you have your answer, you’ve found your gut-check goal.
Are you listening?
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Live…Laugh…Love
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We suggest that our corporate clients do this quarterly (since competition and black swans and new trends can be devastating) and annual for our personal clients (where things are not quite so buffeting). Any life cycle event (bankruptcy, death, marriage, child birth, acquisition, departure of key employee) triggers an automatic review…
Sounds like a great plan, Roy. That is a good point that those goals change with life changes.
Thanks for sharing some good advice, Roy.
If I did what I wanted to, I’d lay around on my wonderful bed and read murder mysteries. I admit to being a semi-domesticated cat in a past life. However, life doesn’t allow that kind of indulgence. I don’t dare sleep in any more or I won’t be done until midnight with what I am doing.
This is not to say that I don’t love what I do and also the divergent paths I take to keep my mind intact (like right now I am working on learning a foreign language as well as doing my work). I’d just rather not be in a position where I have to work. I like it better when I do it because I want to and there are no penalties if I don’t get around to it.
What does my gut say? If I don’t work, it won’t get to eat. It says, “Go to work.”
Hi Ann: If I did what I wanted to, I’d be writing those murder mysteries for you
😀 – soon – I hope.
I promised Creative Copy Challenge. I would finish the story I started at their site.
See my Death and the Detective series
I am laughing at your semi-domesticated cat in a past life. I agree, I wish I didn’t have to worry about little things like eating, but then even if I didn’t, I’d still be writing, so I’m halfway to that goal. 🙂
Thanks for a fun comment, Ann.
Beautiful post, Cathy. It’s centering, and we need just that more often than we know.
Thanks, Lori. Enjoyed our chat yesterday. 🙂
Love the term you chose: “gut-check” goal. Much better than sucker punch *in* the gut! 🙂 Though sometimes ignoring what our intuition tells us and listening too much to all the “noise” can make us feel like we’ve taken a punch.
This is so concise and powerful. Thanks for the wonderful reminder, Cathy.
Hi Steve: Thanks and you are so right. When we don’t listen, we can get sucker-punched. I like that 🙂
Very poignant, Cathy. All too often we stay in situations that are making us miserable – maybe it’s because we don’t know any different and it becomes our “normal”, maybe we’re paralyzed by the fear of change, maybe we’re scared of failure…….and a million other maybes. But you’re right. We have to listen to our gut. It’s usually right, even if it doesn’t offer us a solution.
GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!!!! xxx
Loved how you summed that up, Nicky. You are so right that our gut doesn’t offer us a solution, just the answer.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and guest posting next week while I’m gone. I do appreciate it!
Well thank you for having me on board, and thank you for what you’ll be doing next week 🙂
The pleasure is all mine, Nicky. 🙂
Thanks for the reminder Cathy. It is easy to get caught up in other peoples goals, but I realize at the ripe old age of 38 I don’t want what they want. I want less. Less is more. Thanks.
Hi Traci – nice to see you here. And I couldn’t agree more – Less is definitely more. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.