After You Achieve Your Goal

You've been working at it for years and YOU'VE FINALLY MADE IT. Congrats! But what happens when you've reached that goal? Why is it leaving you feeling so . . . EMPTY?? Learn more at www.ohbelovedone.com.

I absolutely LOVE connecting with all of you guys! I get such sweet emails, texts, and little notes sometimes that really encourage me because I know you guys are reading, listening, and enjoying all my little ramblings.

So, about twooooooooo-ish weeks ago I got this email in my inbox.

I have been procrastinating this email for a while now because sometimes I just don’t know how to put my thoughts into words. “My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.” I love your blog, how unique and like ‘you’ it is. I admire that. A lot.
Ok, let me get to the point. I have had a destination for so long in life that now that I’ve gotten there, I feel like I’m not really doing anything with my life anymore. I know that you are not an adviser. But how are you able to live in each moment, like, embracing the fact that you caught a great opportunity and its now in your back pocket—how do you find a dwelling on the successes?
Me? I am Victoria. I know I haven’t completely reached each and every goal on my list, but I keep telling myself that big dreams are not what makes you great. It just has to be what evaporates from your heated heart. Help me understand this theory. If you can.
Love, Victoria Ige

So, Julia Ryan and I had actually just been talking about the word PURPOSE. Our discussion inspired my idea for next year’s magazine theme and helped me get a jump start on already considering what Victoria was asking.

PURPOSE—

GOALS—

VICTORY—

. . .

Emptiness??

Have you ever felt empty after you accomplish something? Maybe you had a HUGE dream and it finally came true. Now you expect it to be smooth sailing . . . or maybe you even didn’t, but the EMPTINESS is still confusing to you. You should at least feel a *little* happy, right?

Well, I wrote Victoria an entire email back so I’ll just let it speak for itself.

I’m a visionary. I always see a better future, especially when my current state is less than desirable. I’m always thinking up a new project; a new blogpost; a new design; a new task to add to my never-ending to-do list. There are big goals, like publishing a book; there are small goals, like designing a flyer for the blog.

So let me ask myself. If—when—I finally publish a book . . .

I can place myself in your shoes, imagine what it must be like to, as you say, finally achieve your lifelong dream and then . . . What now? When you said that, I immediately thought of Tangled. Her dream is just to “see the floating lights.” Not quite as huge a life goal as perhaps yours is, but still a life goal. Once she’s done it, though, there’s still a longing. And what does Flynn say?

Find another dream! Maybe it’s something like your current dream (like, say, mine is publishing a book so maybe I’d want to publish another one, but in a different genre and tackling even more difficult material) or maybe it’s something totally different. Start a bucket list! What do you want to do before you die? I have things like go on a hike, climb a mountain, go snorkeling, etc. Make achievable action steps to get towards that goal. Life is a big dream-catching exercise. See how many you can collect, and allow your successes to inspire you when the next one just seems a bit out of your reach.

No matter how many books you publish; no matter how many mountains you climb; no matter how many floating lights you hold, release, and watch light up the night sky: you’ll always feel empty. That’s because the God that created us placed a hole inside of us that could only be filled with Him. Sometimes I think about everything I’m doing and everything I want to achieve . . . I think about things I’ve already done, even, and I still feel empty. It’s like eating a meal but forever being hungry. Ultimately, if you have God in your God-shaped heart hole, you can always feel complete, satisfied, and accomplished because you were a part of the greatest success any of us can have: becoming a Child of the Creator. God still gives us gifts and dreams and goals because He wants us to live our best life, make something of ourselves, and ultimately lead people back to Him.

So, to sum it up: keep chasing new dreams, but realize that ultimately one dream will never make you feel like you’ve made it. We’ll always feel slightly empty if we look to anything other than God to make us happy.

What are some of your BIG dreams? Your small dreams? Do you have a bucket list?

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