Alex Shalman has kick-started a blog project to share people’s ‘gotta get goals’,

the top 5 to 10 goals that you gotta’ get so that you can truly say you have achieved your wildest dreams in life.

I have mixed feelings about goals.  They are great for getting people ‘at cause’, shaping and designing the future that they want rather than just drifting into a life designed by others.  It’s a bit like deciding to be the author of (the story of) your life, rather than waiting to find out what someone else has written as the ending.

But an undue focus on goals can lead to frustration, always chasing after what might lie ahead rather than enjoying the here and now.  That’s why I was so pleased to read Hilda Carroll’s take on the ‘gotta get goals’ project.  She kind of turned the exercise  on its head, with her top ten goals all ways of being, of living, rather than things she has to have.  Her number 10 for example is:

Keep smiling, laugh often, have as much fun as possible and spread a little happiness each and everyday

I didn’t think I could beat this for an approach and decided not to pursue the project further.  My unconscious mind had other ideas though and kept on nudging me with ‘here’s one’ and ‘here’s another, this has to be included’… and before long I had a list of ten scribbled dreams in my notebook. Some were familiar to me, some a surprise.  Some are just dreams and I have no idea (or current plans) how to make them happen.  It will be a wonderful surprise if I encounter them along the way.

Anyway, like Hilda I found the exercise a valuable one to do. It reveals a lot about the things that are truly precious to you, those parts that make you who you really are.  Maybe you’ll find it interesting too?  All you need is a pen and paper… and your dreams…

If you want to join the project the rules as I understand them are to write a new post, link or trackback to this post, and to the original ‘gotta get goals’ post by Alex.

So here are the top ten things I’d like to have or make happen in the chapters that are still to come:

1. To live in a cottage on the west coast of Scotland – with mountains, the sea, a pub, live music. Wilderness.  Rain.  Beauty.  Don’t know where, but I’ll know it when I find it.
2. A world-wide network of friends and colleagues who share the dream of making the world a fairer, more connected, more human place
3. The confidence to climb mountains (literally – not a metaphor)
4. A host of grandchildren, step-grandchildren and great nieces and nephews (sorry kids!)
5. A reputation as a great writer, philosopher, coach, spiritual leader (and/or any future career still to be invented)
6. A shelf of published books, all written by me
7. Enough Gaelic to read my grandmother’s short stories
8. A place in France (or Spain, or is it Italy?) where I run writing, coaching or story-telling workshops.  I don’t (yet) know where this is, but there are fruit trees, a lovely garden, good food, warm evenings and rich conversation over a glass of wine…
9. The chance to experience first-hand the story-telling magic of some of the world’s wisest groups of people
10. To be able to say these final words from the Sioux Great Spirit Prayer: make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes, so when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.