“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo

This quote is so painfully fitting for me that it helps me to know that it came from Michelangelo.  One of the tools I learned to use with clients through the Success Unlimited Network was that of helping people differentiate their goals. There is a whole process leading up to figuring out what your goals are and what I love about it is knowing that there are different kinds of goals.  There is your garden variety “anytime” goal, which is a goal that you could pretty, much accomplish at anytime in your life, such as choosing a nutritional diet plan to follow.  Then there is the annual goal, which is more specific and usually bigger than an anytime goal such as writing a book. Some people have many anytime goals and several annual goals and when they do, I suggest that they write out those goals and specify if they’re anytime goals and when they’re annual goals to specify the years for each of those goals.

Then there is the big mammer jammer goal of all goals.  That is the goal that makes you kind of get sick to your stomach a little bit just thinking about it.  That’s the big lifetime goal.  In my past, I’ve thought that I had a big lifetime goal but actually I realize now that they’ve just been annual goals.  I don’t think I had the courage to aim high for a lifetime goal. I have a real diversion to failure and a real fear of imperfection.  It keeps me aiming low and feeling disappointed rather than entertaining the possibility of success because of the overwhelming fear of failure.

The good new is that I think I am inching towards having a lifetime goal, it’s not quite gelled yet but it is becoming more evident the longer I’m in school. When I first returned to school as a “non-traditional” student in the fall of 2008, my only goal was to finish my Bachelor’s degree.  I have an Associates Degree and I have two Professional Life Coaching certifications that prove that I have passed 175 hours of classes and have x amount of hours of coaching under my belt and all these are worthy certifications but I still feel unsatisfied.  Now that I’m half-way through the school process, it is dawning on me that I want to really focus on what I want my education to be for future employment and even more than that, getting a Masters as well.  I think I’m in the midst of crafting a position for myself that doesn’t even exist (or if it does, I haven’t heard of it yet) and I am pretty sure I am going to cobble together some kind of a double major—I’ll keep you posted

I know I love to help people, I know I love to inspire people and I know that I enjoy writing, speaking and entertaining.  And as life would have it, while figuring out where and how to focus my degree plan I am simultaneously getting to learn what voices in and outside of my head to pay attention to along the way. Oh believe me, there is a bevy of them:  “you’re too old Lynn, you’re being selfish, how can you make money that way”…etc. etc. etc.  How many times do I need to read and hear about some of my heroes in life who have gone for what they dreamed about doing and/or being and have accomplished it in spite of the odds?  Can you imagine how different our world would be if some of these people based their actions on these negative voices?  What if someone had laughed at J.K. Rowling’s idea for the Harry Potter books that she first wrote on a napkin AND SHE HAD LISTENED TO THEM?

The fog is beginning to clear from my head so that I can see further where I want to go and who I want to be. It’s not completely in focus yet but it seems to gain more clarity the higher I aim.

Where are you aiming these days and what are you doing to help yourself get there?