“What are your life goals?” is one of those questions that can put people in an uncomfortable position pretty quickly. Most answer this question by laughing it off and responding with something like “eating pizza with no pants on while watching Netflix – that’s what I really want.”

The thing is, nobody wants to take the time to write down their life goals. People live busy lives, and when they do have the time, they’d rather kick it in front of the TV or lay on the couch playing with their phones.
From personal experience – take the time, it makes a world of difference.What exactly are life goals? Simply put, they’re the things you would like to accomplish in your life. Life goals are the big things to work for and accomplish such as getting married and having a family, starting your own business, becoming a big-time executive, or traveling the globe. Life goals are essentially everything you want to do in life before passing on. They’re the stuff people remember you by when you are no longer around.

Why are goals so important? Setting goals gives you purpose, and they help you to guide your life. Think of life goals as your North Star. They’ll guide you where you want to go, but it’s still on you to choose the path to get there.

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of what life goals are, let’s talk about how to set and start working towards them.

Setting life goals in 30 minutes or less

Most people already have a decent idea of what they truly want in life, they just haven’t taken the time to write it down. If that’s you, great. If you have no clue what you want, that’s okay too, I’ll walk you through it.

Even if you’ve already gone through a similar exercise as I’m about to describe, try not to brush off the following activity just yet. Maybe it’s been a while and some of your goals have changed. Maybe there’s a few more things you really want that eluded you before. It may be worth it to go through and rework your plan a bit.

Let’s dive in.

1. Brainstorming your life goals

Find a quiet place to sit and work on this section for 5-10 minutes. If you find yourself hitting a roadblock, try getting up and going for a walk, or perhaps taking a shower. Some of my most inspirational thinking has come from my time spent in the shower.

Think about everything in your life that is really important to you.
Think about the couple of things you’ve really been pondering lately or your biggest struggle in life.
There are plenty of areas of your life you can set life goals in: careers, family, friends, other relationships, schooling, spirituality, traveling, fun, charity, money, health, and many more. These are just some to get your brain churning.
Write down anything and everything that comes to mind – all of the things you’d like to accomplish.

“You cannot struggle your way to joy. Struggle and joy are not on the same channel. You joy your way to joy. You laugh your way to success. It is through your joy that good things come.”
-Abraham Hicks

We love struggle. We really do. We rely on it so much that it’s become a way of life for most of us. We use it to avoid following our dreams, to add drama to our lives, and to make ourselves feel important.

“It’s in the struggle that we find our strength.” “It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.”

Quotes like this are everywhere, but my question is why do we glamourize the struggle (or the hustle, as it’s now often called on social media)? We live in a culture that has a huge respect for success and for the struggle and effort that is “required” to get there, but what if we’re just making life a whole lot more difficult than it needs to be?

There’s something that feels so gratifying in saying “my life is crazy lately- I have so much on the go.” Yes it feels a bit overwhelming, but beneath that, it feels fulfilling and important. I mean no one creates a name for themselves and does well without struggling and “scratching their way to the top.” Right?

Actually, I believe that this is an outdated belief system, and you can either choose to stick with it and keep toiling away, or you can shift your perspective and replace struggling with allowing.

Abraham Hicks Struggle Quote

People are praised for doing it all, being selfless, and working round the clock. Why is this a good thing?? If that were truly the only way, then yes it would commendable, but what if it’s just insanity masking itself as success?

Now, I get that people are busy, and many are far busier than me. I get that there is lots to be done and that we have high aspirations for ourselves, our communities, and our world.

What I don’t get is why we’re dead set on the idea that this needs to be a struggle.

I’m not saying it’s only about visualization and good vibes. Action is necessary, and as Debbie Ford writes in The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, “Prayer without action is not prayer, it’s dreaming.” But what if that action can feel light, inspired, and natural? And what if the path to everything we want is actually joy, not struggle?

What if we stopped martyring ourselves and romanticizing struggle? I’m just suggesting that the next time you find yourself in the midst of struggle, stop and breathe for a moment and just ask “do I really need this struggle? What if I could experience this differently?” Then you carry on with whatever it was your doing, but you do so with a feeling of ease rather than overwhelm.

Life is not meant to be a struggle. Struggle is a human perspective, not.