I have to admit I’m not exactly what you’d call an “outdoorsy” sort-of gal, unless snow skiing and laying out on the beach count. In fact, my one and only camping trip resulted in a massive rash, sunburn and blisters all over my face. Yikes!

(Rich now knows why I have refused to go camping for the previous 32 years of my life)

So if I’m not outdoorsy, what’s up with the rock?

Well, last fall I was speaking at an event, and one of the things that all of the attendees were given, was a rock. It was quite the unusual “gift” for attendees, I mean, you usually only get a pen and a hotel pad!

The gift turned out to be life altering.

Stick with me….

The attendees were told to write their 5-year goals on one side of the rock. On the other side they had to write why they deserved to reach those goals.

Wow!

Many wrestled with their “monkeys” (emotional hang-ups), telling them that they didn’t “deserve” any of the goals. As the weekend progressed, breakthroughs were made that as a result of those rocks. These otherwise highly motivated entrepreneurs began to see that they DID deserve to reach their goals. That was a MAJOR step in the right direction.

I, on the other hand, as a speaker, did not get a rock that weekend, but I vowed to get one once I returned home.

When I got home, I went it search of the most perfect rock, and I found it. It’s the one in the picture at the top of this article. ; ) It was beautiful (so it would look great on my desk), smooth, and most importantly had plenty of space for me to write down my goals.

I brought it home and placed it on the kitchen table.

Countless times I just sat and stared at the rock, not wrestling with WHY I deserved to reach my goals, but what exactly my goals for the next 5 years were.

(shocking, I know, right?)

Let me explain…

For the previous 5 years, my big, pot ‘o gold, goal was to finally be able to spend more of my time helping aspiring entrepreneurs, as opposed to practicing law all day every day.

On August 1st that goal was met.

Now, that I have accomplished something that I felt was virtually impossible only 5 short years ago, I felt like my life was a blank canvas.

What picture did I want to paint over the next 5 years?

That rock made me think long and hard about where I was headed.

And to be honest, it freaked me out quite a bit to realize that I had no clue where I was headed. I felt like I was driving 90 down the expressway with no actual destination in mind.

How ridiculous is that?!?

For over a year, a colleague of mine kept telling me to write down my goals. For over a year, I told her “next week.” The reality was, I didn’t have “time” to make big goals, I just needed to keep taking action on my daily “to-do” lists.

Yet, as I stared at that rock, I felt like a fool.

How could I actually reach any major goals if I don’t set them?

Was I going to somehow get there “by accident”? Perhaps…

But I decided in that moment, that I would no longer live my life by default. I would live my life by design. I have decided to regularly set goals both large and small, that way I know exactly where I’m headed at any given moment.

Some of you may be thinking…. “aren’t you afraid of “not reaching a goal that you set?”

This may surprise you, but the answer is, “NO!”

I believe that I can reach any goal that I set for myself, and you can too!

So, my hurdle wasn’t a feeling like I didn’t deserve to achieve my goal, or even a fear of not achieving the goals.

The rock showed me that I needed to decide out of the limitless possibilities for my life, which goals I would achieve in the next 5 years.

As I wrote the words in permanent marker on that rock, I felt tremendous clarity…

The clarity was immediately followed by a rash of ideas of how to make those goals happen.

I want the same clarity for you!  So what are you waiting for?

Go play outside and find yourself a rock….it’ll change your life!

If you enjoyed this story or think that a friend could benefit from the lesson I shared, please SHARE this article.  Do you have any special methods of setting your goals? Did you try the “rock” exercise?  If so, I’d love to hear it, so please comment below!

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