Goals, schmoals

On August 31st I finally made the decision to withdraw from school. It was like the weight of the world was lifted off of my shoulders and ever since then I have been trying to examine why.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person who has been relatively ambitious when it comes to education. I have always been good at school until recently. Not that I am bad, I just never started really. I signed up for extension classes at Western and ended up working on the same flippin' paper for about a year. I could not get into it and it was really stressing me out. I felt like I needed to be working toward the educational goal while being a stay at home mom. But, why?

So, I just read an article in November’s O magazine and there is a great article about how the "goal oriented" people are the least happy. Meaning the people who have a list and have to tick off all of their goals. Basically it said that those who are seriously goal oriented tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to their life, not really present in the moment and too focused on the future. They might be financially successful, but not really happy. All too often they were working on goals that they eventually felt were someone else's or society's expectations of them.

Holy light bulb moment,Oprah! I think I figured out why I was so stressed out. Granted, I need stress in my life to move me forward, usually, but this was bogging me down big time! So, I came to the realization that we all do this to some extent. We put pressure on ourselves into a goal because perceive it to be the norm or the expectation.

The article also said that the happiest people are those who are open to opportunity, go where they are fulfilled and with what works. They don't have a life plan and stick to it, they have aspirations, but are flexible when something they like more comes up.

Ok, so here's me being flexible... I met with a woman on Wednesday (who I met at Starbucks) to talk about starting my own investments business. So, we ended up talking about writing, my blog, and my dream to write a book. She was great and told me that I didn't need another degree to start writing or to do whatever it is that I want to do. With my life experience and my current mama experience, I could start writing about that!

Therefore, Dear Reader, you are now the subject of my brainstorming, trying-to-come-up-with- a- subject blog. Any ideas or bullshit contained herein are the sole property of me. This blog is now intellectual property. HA! :) Watch out, Oprah, here I come!

Here's to changing directions and not assuming goals that are really not yours. Cheers!