Life Goals

I haven't thought about life goals in a long time. 

Yesterday, I was reading an article in the New Yorker about motivational speakers and life coaches. I never thought that it was a multi-billion industry. I thought of it as a niche thing - like self-help books. (I am not a huge fan of self-help books).

It seems that one of the reasons people are drawn to this is because they want to make money, drive fancy cars, own jets - that's what success means to them ("Do like me and you'll be rich like me" angle that some in the industry sell). This does not resonate at all. 

But there were a few things in that article that made me pause and think .

• If the goal is not scary enough it means it's not big enough.
• Do a challenge that is hard - that forces you to overcome something, that pushes you to try something uncomfortable.
• "Happy" may not be enough. Reading books and eating chocolate makes me happy, at least in the short-term. But I don't think that my aspirations should be limited to "read and have chocolate".

Do you set big goals? Have you ever challenged yourself to overcome something - and succeeded? How did that feel?