What If Your Goals Are Belonging to an Older Version of You? 

What if the goals you're chasing belong to an older version of you? This is where soul goals begin — a fifth-dimensional way of setting intentions around who you are becoming, not just what you want to achieve.

Recently I read an article by Vishen Lakhiani, founder of Mindvalley, about why he has begun rethinking the way he sets goals. 

One sentence immediately caught my attention: 

“I didn’t just want productivity goals. I wanted peace goals.” — Vishen Lakhiani 

I love this distinction because I believe many of us are standing at exactly this threshold. 

We have been taught to set goals around more. 

• More money.
• More customers.
• More employees.
• More recognition.
• More accomplishments.
• More things checked off the list.

What if your Higher Self has a much more elegant idea? Call it what you will, your Inner Guru, your Wisdom Channel, your accurate intuition… 

Goals May Have Changed 

As we move more deeply into fifth-dimensional consciousness, I believe we are being invited to reconsider some of the assumptions we have carried about success. Perhaps success is less about accumulation and more about coherence. Finding that way to connect with the Divine Spark in you – that inner knowing that lets you choose the most evolved version of you! 

Less about how much you can manage and more about how beautifully your life works. Less about proving your value through effort and more about allowing your unique gifts to become fully expressed. 

This becomes especially interesting as artificial intelligence begins changing the structure of work. Tasks that once required hours can increasingly be completed in minutes. Small teams can accomplish what once required large organizations. Information that once took days to gather can appear almost instantly. 

But AI presents us with a much bigger spiritual question: 

What will you do with the time it gives back to you? 

Because freeing ourselves from work has very little meaning if we simply fill the empty space with more work or more mind numbing activities 

Your Higher Self May Have Different Goals

One of the practices I teach is connecting directly with your Higher Self. From that perspective, I invite you to examine your goals again. Some goals belong to who you are becoming. Others may belong to who you used to be. Believe me, it is difficult sometimes, to distinguish between them! Finally, some goals may have been inherited from the world around you (family, friends, culture etc.) without your ever consciously choosing them. 

This is why discernment becomes so important. This is where your Wisdom Channel becomes a powerful ally. Try this with me, take one of your important goals and ask: 

• If nobody were watching, would I still want this?
• What if money were no longer a driving force?
• Would you still come to work? 
• Would you do the same daily tasks?

Then ask: 

• Does accomplishing these “former tasks” create greater freedom, joy and contribution in my life—or simply give me another thing to maintain?

And finally: 

• Is this goal an expression of who I am becoming?

Sit quietly with those questions. 

Your body may answer before your mind does. 

Make Room for Divine Opportunity

Vishen makes another beautiful observation: 

“When your calendar is packed, your life has no space for magic.” 

I would call this making room for Divine opportunity. 

We often ask the Universe for something wonderful while maintaining a life so completely filled that the wonderful thing has nowhere to land. Imagine asking for an extraordinary new opportunity while every hour of every week is already spoken for. I am personally wrapping up a lot of “older” projects… because I too, feel this magical pull, that something wonderful is about to happen! 

Space has value. Silence has value. An unscheduled afternoon has value, especially when opportunity comes for a spontaneous meeting with …. 

The space between one creation and another may be where your next inspiration occurs. But, if you are “busy” with old goals… how can you act on it? 

Recently, while helping a friend navigate with their GPS… they got upset with me, I wasn’t moving fast enough! Then came a second request, before the first one was completed. I said to him, on reflection later, “I was still trying to do the first thing you asked, when you came in with a second request! I felt like I would be dropping all the plates I was holding… to do the next thing!” His response floored me! “Exactly.” That is exactly what he wanted me to do! I was like a dog with a bone… unwilling to let go of the “old” instruction for a new one! Is this you? 

This is something I have learned repeatedly in my own spiritual work: receiving requires space. 

Why Soul Goals Matter in the Age of AI 

Your Uniqueness Becomes More Valuable in the Age of AI 

There is another fascinating paradox happening. As artificial intelligence becomes capable of producing more information, more writing, more images and more ideas, the truly human qualities become increasingly precious.  

What is YOUR contribution? You have your lived experience, your wisdom, your intuition, your humor, your compassion. your relationship with the Divine, your ability to recognize what feels true within your own heart. And there’s more… 

You have your unique way of seeing the world. While it’s true that AI can organize information beautifully, and it can help us explore possibilities as well as an extraordinary creative partner. 

Yet your consciousness remains yours. 

And this is why I believe the future belongs to people who develop a strong relationship with their own inner knowing. Call it your Higher Self, Wisdom Channel or Inner Guru. 

The more powerful technology becomes, the more valuable discernment becomes. It’s finally time for our spirituality to evolve to step up to our technology. 

Perhaps We Need Soul Goals 

For years, people have been taught to create SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It certainly has helped many individuals focus. But now we are ready for another category. 

Soul goals. 

A soul goal might sound like: 

I create enough spaciousness in my life to recognize Divine opportunity. 

I devote my greatest energy to the work that brings me alive. 

I allow prosperity to support my freedom rather than requiring me to sacrifice it. 

I create from inspiration rather than perpetual urgency. 

I use technology to eliminate what drains me while preserving what makes me deeply human. 

I allow my work to become an expression of my Divine purpose. 

Notice something important. These goals describe more than what you will have. 

They describe who you are choosing to be. And in the fifth-dimensional perspective, being is essential. 

A Different Measure of Success 

Imagine waking in the morning and measuring your life differently. 

Instead of immediately asking: 

What do I need to accomplish today? 

Ask: 

What wants to move through me today? 

Instead of: 

How can I get more done? 

Ask: 

What can become simpler? 

Instead of: 

How can I make this bigger? 

Ask: 

How can I make this more beautiful, more useful and more true? 

And instead of: 

What should I be doing? 

Ask your Higher Self: 

What is mine to do now? 

That final question can change everything. Because your next evolution may require more effort. 

And it may even require releasing effort whether it has completed its purpose. Your willingness to use your discernment tells you the difference. 

Measuring Success in the Fifth Dimension

I believe we are entering a period in which some of the most successful people will have surprisingly simple lives. They may run remarkably prosperous businesses with very small teams. They may work fewer hours. They may spend more time creating, meditating, traveling, teaching, loving, learning and simply being present. Their lives may become larger while their structures become smaller. Structure is important, however, that is a very different paradigm. 

Can you now see the unexpected gifts of AI? 

It may ultimately challenge humanity to rediscover something we should never have surrendered: our time. 

Vishen writes,  

“The world doesn’t just need more strategy. It needs more soul.” 

I agree. 

And I would add: 

The future needs human beings who remember who they are. 

Technology can give us extraordinary tools. Consciousness teaches us how to use them. 

Your Higher Self can help you recognize which possibilities are truly yours. And your heart can tell you whether the life you are building is actually the life you came here to live. 

Can you imagine your new goal-setting question for this new era is wonderfully simple? 

If I were already living as my fifth-dimensional self, what would I choose now? 

Listen. You may discover that your future is asking you to do more. You may discover that it is asking you to do less. And you may discover that what you thought was your next goal was simply the doorway to something far more beautiful, life-expanding and easy. 

What you thought was your next goal was simply the doorway to something far more beautiful, life-expanding, and easy.
That is the essence of soul goals — choosing from who you are becoming.

Ready to deepen your connection with your Higher Self and live from your most evolved self? Explore the Ascension Institute →