{"id":16225,"date":"2017-02-17T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=16225"},"modified":"2017-02-22T10:58:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T18:58:15","slug":"victim-goal-setting-by-carol-malone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/17\/victim-goal-setting-by-carol-malone\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You A Victim of Goal Setting? by Carol Malone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fight<\/a>Please welcome author and book coach in training\u00a0Carol Malone<\/a>. Today she\u2019s going to share an article concerning the differences between goal setting and intentions and how learning the difference can affect your writing. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In a previous article, I explained how the whole notion of goal setting and I got off in the wrong foot<\/strong>. I feared the whole system of goal setting and didn\u2019t trust myself to know what goal to set nor how to accomplish it. This happened to me when I was in my early twenties and I never really recovered.<\/p>\n

I always felt that constantly setting goals and losing yourself to the focus of pursuit of future outcomes was detrimental to my mental and emotional health. I gained this feeling because I set goals and failed \u2013 thus I felt like I was the failure.<\/p>\n

But goals make us better people, right?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are folks who can set goals, achieve them, and move on to bigger and grander goals.<\/strong> I applaud these hard-working, dedicated people. Then I know people who are obsessed with setting and achieving goals to the exclusion of all else. They are constantly telling you about how they stopped eating meat, became a vegan, stopped eating sugar to the exclusion of all fruits, or lost so much weight; they\u2019ve become physically what the pre-twenty-first society would consider anorexic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying setting goals to be healthier are all bad, quite the contrary.<\/strong> I\u2019m suggesting there has to be an easier way to reach goals in peace and contentment while still pushing higher and improving one\u2019s life. Would knowing and understanding how valuable intentions <\/em>are as compared to what we know as goal setting and achievement round-out self-improvement?<\/p>\n

We should understand what the differences are between goal setting and Intention.<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I did a little digging and found a great article titled, \u201cThe Difference Between Intentions VS. Goals.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0The author, Elise Moreau, understands a lot about Yoga and being able to \u201cset your intention\u201d at the beginning of practice.<\/p>\n

Elise explained what Intention<\/em> is: \u201c\u2026you can think of intention<\/em> as your energetic starting point in its purest form for your goal.<\/strong> It\u2019s that powerfully authentic vow that comes from your core. It goes deeper than the mind and comes from a state of pure awareness.\u201d The best way to achieve such awareness is to meditate, according to Elise.<\/p>\n

Then \u201cAn intention may be revealed to you in a way that makes it as simple as saying \u201cI will breathe fully,\u201d or \u201clet me be strong.\u201d It may\u00a0also be more emotional than physical, like \u201cI release all my fears,\u201d or \u201clet me embrace vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I was younger, I got the feeling that constantly reaching for more and setting higher and higher goals was creating in me a feeling that what I was now was not \u201cenough.\u201d <\/strong>In a sense, I was victimized<\/em> by the notion that if I didn\u2019t set constant goals and was not working to achieve them, I wasn\u2019t sufficient.<\/p>\n

I had to find some type of happy and delightful middle ground, a compromise between setting goals and accepting me for who I was, how fast I changed, and who I would become in the future. Thank goodness I\u2019ve learned about living with intentions.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is living your intentions?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From an article I found on Ted* <\/em>titled, \u201c3 Differences Between Goals and Intentions<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0the author, Debbie said, \u201cLiving your intentions \u2026 is much different than having a goal-oriented focus.<\/strong> Being intentional allows you to focus on\u00a0how\u00a0you want to be in the moment, independent of whether you are winning or losing.\u00a0Allowing intentions to guide your moment to moment focus, means you are living your values and what matters most to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has a lot to do with what you value, what are your core beliefs? Some might be:<\/strong><\/p>\n