What if goal-setting could get in the way of you actually enjoying life? In today's '5 Minutes In Nature' Liz is reflecting on goal-setting. She sees that when she is driven to achieve the goal and neglects to enjoy the journey, she misses out on the richness of the experience. Today's reflection is all about being present and enjoying the journey of life.
Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and every day in February you find me out and about listening to nature's wisdom as I go walking and today I haven't come far actually I'm taking my elderly dog for a walk he's a labradoodle called Buzz Lightyear he's 14 and a half and he's been such a delightful dog over the years but now he just likes a gentle stroll and amble and he likes to sniff along the way and so I've come into the village and I'm sitting on a bench overlooking what in the summer will be a wildflower meadow I mean that's a rather grand title really because it's a tiny patch of ground here it's almost like an island and around this island of long grasses as they will be in the summer it's the tightly clipped grass on the edges so it really is like a lovely island in the summer where the grasses will eventually grow tall and flowers will peep through those grasses and it will be alive with insects and birds and it's a beautiful little area now in the winter there's not a lot to see and I'm sitting on the bench and my dog is sniffing the air and just enjoying life and today I feel really drawn to talk about goals and goal setting I guess in a way I'm not here to put down goals I think they're very useful it's just that I think that when they become all encompassing then they can be detrimental they can get in the way so for example a little simple example is me walking around the village today I know that it's not raining I'll meet different people it's very likely I'll get caught in conversation and I'll stop and I'll chat so my goal might be to go out for a walk but it's not just to get a walk in and then go home it's like this isn't something I'm doing as a punctuation point in my life this walk it is my life so if the dog wants to sniff or go off at a tangent and if I meet people and have a chat that is part of what it is to be present to what's going on today it's not just about whizzing around the village doing a mile of a walk and then cracking on with the stuff I need to do at home well certainly for me and a few years ago I used to see goals as the be-all and end-all it was like I set a goal and then I needed to work hard to achieve that goal and so the journey towards that goal became quite arduous whether it was a health goal an eating goal it was a career-based goal I used to set myself lots of mini goals to reach and would hold myself accountable and give myself deadlines and it would be hard work and so I see goals very differently now I genuinely see that it's helpful to have an aspiration or to have a framework or something that is drawing you in life but it's not the achievement of that that gives you the pleasure it is the journey towards it I'm really inspired about walking a pilgrimage and I'll tell you a bit more about that on future recordings this February because it's going to happen next month I'm going to be walking several hundred miles and I was drawn to take this pilgrimage last year it occurred to me that this was something I was inspired to do and over the last few weeks and months I've been plotting it and planning it and finding out more about it and considering the places I want to visit along the route and I know it's a spiritual reflective journey for me and often when I tell people that I'm going on this pilgrimage route people want to know well how many miles are you going to walk every day and what speed do you think you'll do it and what happens if it rains or what if this happens or how are you going to do deal with accommodation when people want to talk about the pilgrimage they they get lost in all the intellectual stuff of doing and I understand that it's it's I'm curious about that too in many ways it's just that I am NOT walking this to get fit I'm not walking this to notch up miles I'm not walking this to make a big statement in life I'm walking this because I've listened in my wisdom is drawing me to go on this journey and I actually know that reaching the end of this journey this pilgrimage is not the point it is what unfolds along the way I'm assuming it will be the people I meet and the challenges I have to go through that is what life is about life is not about reaching a goal and then getting on with life life is about being drawn to experience things and then relishing the journey which is more important much more important than achieving the goal itself
Thank you for this reflection as I have struggled with goals & disappointments. I now try to focus on the journeys to doing what I wish to do 🦋🧡🦋
Looking forward to hearing more about your pilgrimage walk.
