Remembering What Life is All About

This week I had the privilege to participate in the 5th edition of the Canadian Transplant Games, an olympics-type week of competition where all of the athletes share something very special in common; they have all received an organ and/or tissue transplant.

Like the Olympics and other sporting events like it, all of the athletes at the transplant games have trained hard and are there to compete and do the best they can. Like all games, some won medals, others did not. But what these games have that others don't, is the special connection that every athlete has with one another because of their shared experiences. Everyone who participates in these games knows what it means to be very ill, they have faced death, and they have come out the other side with a new appreciation for life and a desire to make the most of every day they have been given.So while everyone wants to win, they are able to keep winning in it's proper perspective and remember that what is most important is to compete and to celebrate their life and their good health.

What makes the Transplant Games the most special is that in addition to transplant recipients, there are also families of donors who come. They come to see the impact that their gift has made on the lives of others, and they are comforted in the knowledge that they have made a difference to someone. It is always an emotional time when donor families meet recipients and we who have received the gift of life are able to say "Thank You" to those who have given it. To say that these moments are powerful, would be a dramatic understatement. The energy in the air is electric and something that I have never experienced anywhere else.

There are many great things about participating at these games every two years: the friendship and understanding shared among athletes, the fun of competition and the joy of winning, but by far the most valuable thing I take away from these games is the reminder of what really matters. As we go through the week and hear the stories of of survival, courage and healing, we're reminded that what matters more than medals is that we are all alive, able to share these experiences together. And so i challenge you this week to take inventory of your life and think about what really matters to you, and decide if you are living your life in accordance with those values. If so, great. If not, start remembering what Your life is all about.

Why Set Goals?

Yesterday I ran my fifth Half-Marathon. After sixteen weeks of training through the long, cold, winter, I ran the event two minutes shy of my goal time. But we had a blast, we finished it, and to me, that's a successful day.

There is more written about how to set and achieve goals than most of us would or could ever read. It's talked about in almost every self-help book I've ever read and is the focus of volumes in itself. What is talked about much less often, but I think equally important is not the HOW of setting and achieving goals, but the WHY.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, "Why should I bother setting a goal? What's the point?". I can say that, even as a motivational speaker who you might think takes goal setting as a given, I have spent a good deal of time thinking about the "why" of goal setting. After all, I think, if I'm going to suggest to people that this is something they should do, I ought to have a good reason. Here it is... it makes you happier. Goal setting makes your life better! And here's the best part, you don't necessarily need to achieve the goal in order to enjoy the happiness benefits that come with it!

Studies have shown that people are happy when they are pursuing a goal, but that once the goal is achieved, there is usually a sense of letdown. BEcause the happiness comes from the feelings one has while pursuing a goal, the realization of the goal is rarely as satisfying as anticipated, and once achieved is quickly incorporated into a persons understanding of reality and thus is less exciting. It is likely this same phenomenon responsible for the studies that show that lottery winners' levels of happiness return to base levels quite quickly. We all dream of the big lottery win, but once we get it, we realize that, hey, it's only money, it doesn't solve all of our problems, and we still have to deal with live like we did before.

So why set goals?
The biggest reason is that it improves our lives and the lives of others. Setting worth while goals makes you a better person, and depending on what they are, way also help many other people along the way as well. The entrepreneur who sets out to create a great company enriches the life of his family with this earnings, benefits his customers with his product or service, and helps all of his employees by providing gainful employment. Win, Win, Win.

The author who sets out to write the next great book benefits from the experience of writing and from the sales of his work. The readers who enjoy the work gain a nice experience of escape from the a novel or learning from a work of non-fiction. The people who work in the publishing house and the bookstores benefit from employment that comes from the selling of that book. Win, Win, Win.

These are all valid and worthwhile reasons to set goals, but the biggest of all is what pursuing a goal does for us internally. The sense of joy, usefulness and purpose that comes from having a goal to pursue are real and powerful. Having a goal gives a reason to get up in the morning. Having a goal gives our lives direction and purpose. Having a goal informs us about what matters and what doesn't and about how we should spend our time.

So go out there and set some goals. Try to achieve as many of them as you can. You probably won't achieve them all, but that's okay, in fact, it almost doesn't matter if you achieve them or not. After all it is the pursuit that makes you happy and improves your life. Achieving the goal is really just a bonus.