Do you like the person you’ve become? I asked myself this question in December of 2016, I was visiting my family for the holidays. When you find crossroads in life, you can stay on the current path or make a change. On a letter envelope, I had done something I hadn’t done in a number of months. I started writing out goals or things I wanted in my life.
I decided to let the past teach me and focus on designing my life. We have all heard of goal settings, but how often do we reflect on those wants? It takes work to sit down and think about what we want for our future. I think the hardest part of the goal setting process is Deciding what we want…
What do we want in our life, career, income, relationships, health, and so many more aspects of our life? I proceeded to do a brain dumb of everything that I could think of that I wanted. That moment was clarifying it showed me my current actions weren’t in alignment with who I wanted to become. I want to become financially independent, a father, and get into better shape to name a few. It was important for me to write my goals, I could see the price that I would have to pay to become that kind of person.
Later that day I found a quote that I absolutely loved by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The only person you are destined to become is the person YOU DECIDE TO BE.”
This quote resonated with me because I realized that I had felt like I wasn’t in control of my life anymore, not because it was chaos, but I wasn’t growing or stretching. I started reading more books, listening to podcasts and writing in my journal again. At WalMart, I purchased a Fitbit during that trip because one of my goals was to have a better body. A friend of mine named Bobbi told me about how she had lost weight with her Fitbit. By DECIDING to buy the Fitbit, I was DECIDING to be different from who I was yesterday.
The decision to change and commit to leading a life that was in alignment with my goals was of my choosing and the Fitbit was a tool to help measure my progress. I love seeing that progress and measuring it; I still have weight to loss, just like I still have student loans to pay off and steps to take. Each step taking me further than yesterday.
WHY?
Part of the beauty of taking these steps is checking off the progress towards my goals. I have been asking myself a set of questions the last few months:
- Why?
- Why not?
- Why not me?
- Why not now?
After reading Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why,” I recommitted to asking these questions for each and every goal in my life.
This book gave me an interesting perspective on how companies that are successful are different from the rest. I first found Simon via his UBER popular TED Talk. I decided to apply this to my own journey in life and rediscover my “Why.”
Why? A life without growth is a life without love. I am committed to becoming the strongest version of myself, these are my BABY STEPS TOWARD GREATNESS.