Are Your Goals Helping You Become the Person You Want to Be?

Charting a Course to Self-Actualization Through Goals

Jim Rohn, a renowned philosopher and motivational speaker, once wisely observed,

“The major value of reaching a goal is not to acquire it, but it is the person that you become while you are working to acquire it.”

This profound insight delves into the essence of personal growth and self-discovery by pursuing our aspirations.

We are entering a new year. We are setting new resolutions or goals for this year. Setting those goals was a very important task. Did we give enough thought to the goals?

When setting goals, are we thinking about the accomplishments, the trophies or awards we will garner, or just our family’s appreciation? This is a typical way to do it.

A better way is to think about who you will be after completing the task. Who will you become? Does this person advance your idea of a better you? Does this resolution or goal make this possible?

The heart of this wisdom is that your efforts to accomplish the goal make you a better person. This has much greater significance than merely achieving a goal.

If we look deeper into this concept, we can turn to the insights of psychologist Abraham Maslow. He became famous when he presented his hierarchy of human needs. At the top of that hierarchy rests a need that he considered the highest and most profound: self-actualization.

Self-actualization requires you to realize your full potential. You become the best version of yourself. That is a fancy way of saying that who you become while working to fulfill your other needs is, in fact, the most essential need of all.

Now, let’s get back to setting our goals. We must ask, “Are they conducive to self-actualization? Are they aligned with becoming a person we will admire and respect?”

Are they negative in tone, like seeking revenge or exposing another’s transgression? Do you want to prove someone else wrong? What will these goals help you to become? How much of your time and energy will be wasted to accomplish these goals? Are the long-term consequences worth that? Having completed one of these goals, will you be a person you can admire and respect?

Let’s take a look at an admirable goal. Galsan Tschinag is a Mongolian teacher and poet. He had a goal of planting 1 million trees on the steppes of western Mongolia. He wrote about it enough that it became a celebrated cause. Now, the government has picked it up as the Billion Tree Project.

My partner learned about him and read a few of his books. When she was going to Mongolia to visit, she contacted his office in Germany. They said he was traveling but would return to his home in Ulan Batar while she was there. They did speak, but while he writes in German, their common language made conversation difficult.

Did he set an admirable goal? Has it helped him to live a better life? I should think so, although I don’t know that for sure. He is still an activist for a few causes and reasonably successful at those.

A significant portion of our lives has been and will be spent on pursuing goals that don’t contribute to our self-actualization. Not all of them have contributed positively to our personal self-worth or growth. It is easy to get caught up in the moment due to competition or anger, but the long-term effect on our character may be detrimental.

When it is time to set goals or resolutions or just change direction with your life’s journey, the essential questions to ask are these:

When I accomplish that, will I like who I have become? Do I admire and respect the person that I am now? Has anyone else benefited from my becoming?

You can use these answers as your compass as you move forward. Keep in line with your deepest values and ideals. Your journey should actually be your evolution.

Jim Rohn’s insightful words remind us that who we become is at least as important as what we accomplish. He encourages us to set the proper goals to achieve self-actualization, challenge our limitations, and become our best selves.

So, as we continue our journey in this life, we use the pursuit of self-actualization as the guiding star to illuminate our path.

Isn’t it comfortable inside your comfort zone? Here are some words from AJ about that:

TzeLin Sam has some more words on this here:

Having trouble with negative people? Here are some wise words from Jolka:

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