How To Live in The Now And Set Future Goals?

If you are serious about setting goals yet you are trying to "be in the now" as the Buddhists and recently Echkart Tolle advocate, then you will want to read this article thoroughly. There are many schools of thought when it comes to goal setting. Some schools emphasize setting goals for the future all the time while other schools focus on "just doing the best in this moment". There is apparently a discord between the two. If you are the kind of person that does want to achieve your lofty goals and at the same time, wants to stay grounded, focused in the now, and alert to what is happening here and now, you seem to have a dilemma on your hands.

Is it possible to resolve this dilemma? Let's see. In a standard goal-setting program, available in similar forms for the past 100 years, one needs to just focus on the desired goal. Keep it in mind, make it clear visually, make it clear auditory, and make it emotional. But how does that agree with staying in the now? Also, in the standard goal-setting program, one does not need to concern himself with the way the goal is achieved. The details of the time evolution toward your goal, so the instructions say, will be left to the future. One only needs to concern oneself with imagining the goal and feeling good about it. Can that be enough? Are we really not to know anything about the details of the development ahead of time?

Clearly, attempting to grasp all the details is out of question. We live in a complicated world. Everything changes daily. It is simply not possible to know the details in advance. But can we require more than just leaving the entire in-between now and the fulfillment of the goal, out of our request? How much can we require regarding our path to our stated goal?

Some modern goal setters, such as Marc Allen, demand for their path to the goal to be easy and relaxed, so they will feel good, and not stressed, not only when the goal is accomplished, but also all the while they are on their way toward accomplishing the goal. This certainly seems a reasonable requirement. Yet, not too many successful people have followed this path. Anecdotes of miserable multimillionaires abound.

And now, we seem to be adding yet another requirement. We want to be conscious, in the now, present, all the time. Another reasonable requirement. Are the requirements of feeling good, and relaxed, and being in the now and completely present, at all compatible with the goal setting and achieving?

Here the principle of abundance comes to rescue. The principle states that yes, all our goals that are sincere, are achievable. But it also reminds us that there are infinitely many paths to our goals. The principle of abundance states that there are paths to our goal that are pleasant, easy, that do not cause us stress.

So how do we find these paths that are easy and pleasant? We need to be observant and flexible. These traits come automatically when you live in the now. Living in the now means paying attention to your surroundings, to everything you have access to, either within or without. And living in the now means not being attached to anything, possessions, thoughts, anything. That is the ultimate flexibility.

This article argued that, when you decide to live in the now, you have, through intensive observation, and ultimate flexibility, the ability to pick your ultimate goal, and stay on a path to that goal that is unknown, yet always easy and stress free. So not only is being in the now and focusing on your goal compatible, it is the ultimate way to achieving your goals in an effective, fast, and stress-free way.