Today I’m grateful for understanding my goals or experiences I desire are actually feelings I seek to desire.
I want specific things to happen in my life. Consciously or not, I set goals — and most of them are tied to certain experiences I imagine will make me happy. These are all valid, beautiful dreams I pursue. But they’re just surface expressions of my underlying deeper desires.
People usually name the material manifestations — but what they really long for are specific feelings.
It’s profound to understand that what you say you want isn’t what you actually want. When you’re telling others about your dream of travelling or a romantic partnership, this usually conveys hope for how those things will make you feel.
No matter how much your attention is fixed on the material aspect of your dreams, it’s the emotional content that matters.
What you really pursue in life are feelings — not experiences.
My goals I desire
Build a business that allows me to travel the world while working on my business
Building a reliable passive income so I “don’t have to work but choose to work. I couldn’t imagine not working
Having the perfect romantic partner with whom to plan our future.
Decoding the list above, these are my real desires:
The feeling of freedom.
The feeling of security.
The feeling of unconditional love.
Now that I know the feeling I can identify actions and tasks to complete to experience those feelings daily even if it is for a few seconds.
Recently, research has begun to focus on emotion as a target of goals. In this case, goals can arise when people become aware of a discrepancy between a current emotional state (e.g., “I feel anxious”) and a desired emotional state (e.g., “I want to feel less anxious).
So review and decode your goals to find out the feelings you truly desire to start experiencing them now.
For Real Happiness: Focus on Your Feelings, NOT Your Goals!