The process and challenges associated with accomplishing goals involve a level of personal development and introspection. Introspection involves overcoming your nature to step outside your comfort zone and take risks with potential rewards that will forever change your life.  Our belief systems are often the cause of the results in our life.  If we have an association that money only comes to people with a certain level of education, then we’ll never have money without that education. Given this level of consciousness, how do we change our belief systems to empower us and improve our lives?  How do we change our behavior or the situations around us?  Remember, the only thing you have control over is yourself; create the possibility to have everything.  What would that look like?  How would that negate the belief system instilled in you?  Are you willing to look within, do some work and change yourself and the outcomes in your life?  If so, you must start by doing some self reflection and having the willingness to be aware and make changes.  Here is a step by step process:

1.    Identify what is hard... What pushes your buttons?  When do you feel immediately reactive or defensive?

2.    Acknowledge that this situation is placed in your life for a reason, to help you develop and be the best individual you were destined to be in this lifetime.  This situational test is to help you realize that there’s something you need to learn to help yourself grow and develop.

3.    Identify your reaction… Do you feel like lashing out?  Are you upset, hurt, mad, angry, frustrated, or do you feel helpless?  Why are you experiencing this?  Would others react this way?  Are you taking it personally?  What are your assumptions as it pertains to the situation?

4.    Restrict. This might be very difficult but you must stop yourself from reacting and allow the process to happen and reflect on what went wrong.  How did this situation arise?  Don’t take things for granted; appreciate the opportunity to change through this experience.  This is an opportunity to learn from your own experiences, change your reactions and become a better person.  What is your blockage?

5.    Deal with the situation differently and change your consciousness!  Stretch yourself by changing the results.  Be aware of your reactive nature and what is causing this reaction within you. From this point forward, appreciate this learning experience and be prepared in the future to handle things differently.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results.  In order to change the results in your life, changing your actions, reactions and routine are the only ways to successfully influence the outside factors that influence your happiness and sense of fulfillment.  So start by looking within and being aware of how you view and handle situations in your life.

We often live our lives day by day, not planning for the future or considering the after affections of our decisions and choices. What motivates us to make a positive impact on the world?  What will it take for us to look at the big picture of our lives and transform short-term decisions to long-term results? The true question is, what legacy would you like to leave behind?  How would you like to be remembered and are you on the path to achieving that? 

Let’s first uncover the challenges people face in creating a life purpose or goal. This could include the changes we make as we grow up. As we get older and wiser, our views and priorities change.  The career we once thought was perfect for us, is now a nightmare and rediscovery or re-educating ourselves to a new career is necessary.  Then family priorities change.  At one time we thought we’d get married by a certain age and then have kids by a certain age, and then suddenly we find ourselves single (no kids or spouse in sight) when we had already planned to be done having kids.  So, these variances between our plan and reality kick in. What now?  How much control do we really have? 

There’s no guarantee in life that everything will work out your way.  On the contrary, life will always challenge you and it’s your job to overcome and achieve.  So, in the big scheme of things, how do we create the legacy desired with all the unexpected variables?  Well, what do you have control over?  Starting out easy is the only way to put things into perspective and gain a hold of life.  If you want to be remembered as a generous person, when was the last time you helped a friend or gave to a cause?  If you want to be remembered as honest, have you lied or mislead anyone lately?  If you want to be remembered as an entrepreneur who employed 100’s of people, what is your big business idea and what’s the plan of attack to help get you there? 

Bottom line, we can live life day by day, make decisions for the moment, and not consider the repercussion of our actions.  However, before we know it, 20 or 30 years will go by and we’ll ask, “Where did the time go?”  Why put yourself in that position?  How rewarding would it be to create a legacy, know how you want to be remembered, and start living that life today?!?