This Feels Like Love

As a coach, you might be able to guess that I love setting goals. I set personal goals all the time. Every year on New Years day and usually again in the fall when school starts because that feels like a great time to get refocused and energized. I set monthly, weekly and daily goals too. 

I love goals because they give me a direction. The funny thing is that I really only achieve my goals in the time frame that I plan about 50% of the time. But I get there eventually and always at the perfect time, even if it isn’t the time I had planned on. But the time frame doesn’t really matter. The point, for me, is the direction and the momentum. 

I like setting goals because I can choose a direction, a purpose and a focus. Then I use all the power that is in me to push this life of mine in that direction and create the momentum. 

It fills me with a sense of empowerment and fulfillment. Even when I don’t get to my goal “on time.”

So this January has been a little difficult for me because I have had a really hard time setting concrete goals. If I’m honest, I feel like I’m in new and uncharted territory in my life right now. In some ways, I have no idea what to except, let alone plan on and chart out. It is a really new sensation for me. 

So I decided to change it up a little bit with my New Year goals. 

Instead of setting a destination, I’m focusing on the direction. I decided to do that this year by asking myself this question:

Does this feel like Love?

I ask myself this everyday. All day long. In all sorts of situations. 

I want to fully embrace Love this year, in all areas of my life. I want to feel more love in my marriage and for my husband. I want to feel love for my kids. I want to feel more love in my faith and for Jesus Christ and as I serve those around me. I want to feel more love for myself. I want to feel love in my business and my work. 

It is not a destination. It isn’t measurable or concrete, but it is a direction. 

I have noticed some subtle changes in my focus already in the last few weeks as I’ve been practicing this new thought. 

One way it has shown up is in the way I think about my body. 

I am learning to ask myself every time I move, fuel, or think about my body, “Does this feel like Love?”

Sometimes it’s obvious.

When I am looking in the mirror and criticizing my reflection, it definitely does not feel like love. When I am eating to try and avoid feeling negative feelings, it does not feel like Love. 

Eating my favorite German Chocolate Cake for my birthday and reminds me of my mom, definitely feels like Love. 

But other times, it isn’t so clear. And this is where things get fun. 

I am learning to look closely at my motives for my actions. 

Am I buying that new dress because it feels like Love or am I trying to avoid feeling negative emotions by shopping? Sometimes, it’s both. 

Sometimes, feeling Love leads me to do hard things. 

Like enforcing boundaries with my kids that I know they will hate. It genuinely feels like Love for me, but I know that they will not see it that way. 

Or like choosing to keep a commitment that I made to myself in my business even when I want to blow it all off and go do something spontaneous. Keeping my commitment definitely feels more like Love.

I am loving the direction that this simple question is taking me this year. I believe that although I may not have a quantifiable outcome, I will have a better understanding of myself at the end of this year. 

And I will feel a lot more Love in my life. 

What feeling would you want to have more of? I can help you set some goals (or even a direction) to help you get there. Just click the link below to set up a free coaching call where we can write out a plan to get you there.