Onward and Upward

Yesterday was my twenty-fifth birthday (let's just take a moment to say that I am feeling old). Upon reviewing the state of my life, I realized that the majority of the goals I had set for myself had already been accomplished. Thinking this, I wanted to feel amazing, and to an extent I am a bit surprised at what I've done lately. However, I am also afraid that perhaps the best of my life is behind me. Have I hit the climax of my life? These are some of the goals I have accomplished in the past two years:

-Graduate from college with honors
-Buy a NEW car
-Buy a home
-Become a gourmet cook
-Travel to Europe
-Marry an amazing man
-Start a small business

Now I need some new goals for the new phase of my life. While teaching student success I told my students that a goal not written down and not shared with others is non-existent. Therefore, I am now writing down and sharing some of my new goals that I want to accomplish in the next two years (hopefully sooner):

-Become respected, well-liked, and a desired member of the team at work
-Have my small business pay for itself
-Learn how to make wedding cakes
-Be more of a contributing member on my podcast
-Make a real quilt
-Sing in front of a real audience again

With these aspirations in mind and hoping to find success, I am reminded of a paragraph from one of the best books I have ever read:

"Don't aim at success -- the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run -- in the long-run, I say! -- success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it."

~ Viktor Frankl, from Man's Search for Meaning