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Have you ever wondered? Is that how you arrived at your list of goals in the first place? What would life be like if you achieved all your goals? What would change? What are you hoping for? What are your goals?

Lots of questions, I know. But that’s what Monday Musings are about. It’s time to look within to find out what motivates you. Time to see the complete picture as far as you can.

You can answer in the comments or on your site. I’ll be back later on with my thoughts.

I’m back

I found it interesting that the comments left inferred that meeting all of life’s goals would bring an end to life. I guess it would matter which goals were achieved. Then later on in the day I was reading Scott Adam’s blog (The Dilbert Guy), and he said:

I remember when Dilbert hit it big and it became clear that I would never again have to worry about money. It was a wonderful feeling, but it didn’t last. I went from happy to hollow with no warning. The first moment that I could afford any car I wanted, I lost interest in having a nice car. I simply couldn’t see the point, if there ever was one. Success is surprisingly disorienting.

He goes on to say that once he realized that all of his goals were met, he turned outward. In his words, ” [he] found ways to use [his] success to make the world a little bit better.”

Why the questions?

This entire line of questioning started because I was tagged by Alex Shalman to list 5-10 of my gotta have it goals. I created my list of goals by envisioning the life that I want. From that point, I listed the items that would make up that life and the milestones that would mark my way along the journey. However, I realize that a few of my goals are more like lifetime achievements than milestones and I began to wonder what would happen once those were met. I figure a whole vision will open up. So without further ado, here’s my gotta have it list:

1. Fully realize and know my Oneness with God a la Jesus or Buddha. Yup, it’s at the top of the list. This is the one that got me wondering what next. Once that happens, what’s a gal to do?
2. Start a school that teaches holistically and can be duplicated. The school would incorporate experiential lessons, trips to various countries, explorations of different cultures, and heavy parental involvement with a possible adjunct curriculum for parents. One thing I’d like to do is teach people how to layer ideas over problems to solve them, rather than thinking that solutions are unique to a particular problem. After these two the rest seem unimportant, but they will help me achieve them.
3. Be wealthy. I have a number in mind that I won’t disclose, but it’s an income number not a net worth number. I want to be a philanthropist on the scale of Bill Gates, or Oprah Winfrey.
4. Experience radiant health. Health is the area of my life where I struggle the most. Specifically, my goal is to weigh below 137 lbs, and maintain healthy cholesterol levels, heart rate, and blood sugar.
5. Run the Alaska marathon with Team in Training. Team in Training is a phenomenal organization that combines volunteerism, leadership development, and athletic training. I think it’ll be cool to run in Alaska with that group of people.
6. Speak to an audience of 250 or more people in each of 100 countries. Part of my purpose is to heighten spiritual awareness, help people tap into their Divinity, and see the Divinity in others.
7. Have a loving, sexy, soulful, spiritual, symbiotic, fun, flourishing, successful marriage. I want a marriage thats a partnership filled with passion.
8. Be a present, integral, loving member of my family.

When I achieve these goals, I feel like a whole other world will open. It’s like driving down the street and knowing there’s a corner coming up. You don’t know what’s around the corner until you get to that point.

Oh, and I tag:

Jon - Art of Money
Kimber and Erin - No Limit Ladies
Terry - Ramblings from a Glass Half Full
Kammie - Passion Meets Purpose
Tony - Success from the Nest
Scott - The Approachability Guy
Wade - The Middle Way
Alexander - The Chief Happiness Officer
Mama Duck - L’il Duck Duck
Rick - Shards of Consciousness
Lyman - Creating A Better Life
Gleb - Personal Development Ideas

And all of my readers (shy friends) who want to tell the world about their goals!

In Spirit,
Nneka

In 2004, 4 months behind on the mortgage, the bank threatening to foreclose on my house, the electric company one day away from cutting off the electricity, numerous collection agencies calling, and a business on the verge of collapse, I felt the squeeze of desperation. In those moments, it was essential for me to ask for a way out.

Asking did not change God’s mind so that my wish of the perfect job could come to me. Asking got me to the point from which I departed, the point where I returned my focus to God. I returned my focus to the abundance of the Universe, the guidance that was always available to me, and the resources that were readily available.

This is the last installation in Petitioning Prayer during the year long series, Year of Prayer. I thought I would pose the question, “Why are we still asking God for stuff?” All religious texts point us to a life staid on God. They all say in some form that when our attention is on God we don’t have to worry about material things. They all say that, in fixing our gaze on God, all the things that we need will be provided. This is not to say that we do nothing. It means that we direct our attention and awareness to the Presence, the Spirit, the one Consciousness that is always available, and that we are guided to our highest good.

Those who surrender to God all selfish attachments are like the leaf of a lotus floating clean and dry in water. Sin cannot touch them. Renouncing their selfish attachments, those who follow the path of service work with body, senses, and mind for the sake of self-purification. Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace.

– Hinduism: Bhagavad Gita 5.10-12

How many animals do not carry their own provision! God provides for them and for you. He is Alert, Aware.

– Islam: Qur’an 29.60

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

– Christianity: Bible Matthew 6:25-27

The Master said, “What need has nature of thought and care? In nature all things return to their common source and are distributed along different paths; through one action, the fruits of a hundred thoughts are realized. What need has nature of thought, of care?”

– Confucianism: I Ching Great Commentary 2.5.1

In all of your asking, be sure to ask for guidance, for courage, for willingness. Ask that you remain open so that you can be a full expression of God, so that Spirit can work through you.

In Spirit,
Nneka