Change isn’t easy. What we know about our psyche and biology is it resists change on the survival premise that change equates with new terrain, which equates with danger. Thus, to move forward, we often have to consciously override subconscious programming that wants to keep us “safe” by keeping us right where we are. Therefore, to change, we must swim upstream, against the habitual currents and thinking patterns etched deeply in our minds. Challenging stuff.

To help us navigate that frequently uncomfortable terrain, we often apply goals or intentions to create some sense of direction and control. While some direction is healthy, even important, for moving forward, our intention at the core of our goal setting is a vital piece to determine where we end up. Ego or soul? That is always our choice; but what’s the difference between the two?

Ego can have many different definitions and connotations. It is often despised and demonized; a part of us we must exorcise away. Yet, I think our ego is merely our operating system. It is the sum total of all of our conditioning, experiences, beliefs, thoughts and feelings that programs our way of perceiving and experiencing reality. Happy in the status quo of our comfort zone, our ego recycles thought patterns and habitual behavior like elevator music in our heads. On the other hand, our soul selves are all about accountability, growth, evolution and change; breaking free from the status quo of our past.  This innate wisdom, in philosopher Joseph Campbell’s words, is the acorn seed of possibility we have been gifted in this life to live authentically and purposefully. 

By definition then, if we set goals from an ego intention we typically recreate the same patterns we have been living. Remember, the ego doesn’t want change.  Additionally, the ego knows only what it has experienced; thus, choices and possibilities are rather limited. When we give specific instructions to the universe through an ego goal, we often declare exactly what we want in the way we want it; completely blocking access to the field of unlimited potential. The ego also tends to fixate on external changes and things, often mistaking them for inner feelings or desires. For example: “If I could just get that new car, I would finally feel successful”. Often ego goals are if-then thinking, placing our good feelings out of reach until we get things, status or accolades.

Soul intentions, on the other hand, are based on change, challenging us to learn and grow. Thus, soul goals open us to the field of unlimited possibilities and what we have yet to discover. To the soul there are many roads to the same destination. Soul goals are focused on inner work rather than outside things or accolades; soul goals request more abundance, joy and healing without attachment to material things or expectations about  how those things show up. Soul goals allow us to find what we are looking for right now, in this moment and every day rather than putting it off for later.

To set a soul goal we must connect deeply with the feeling we want to achieve and not the thing itself. If we want a new car, job or relationship for example, what is the feeling we are really wanting underneath that object or situation. Perhaps we really want abundance, freedom or joy? Those feelings are at the core of soul goals, and we let go of deciding and expecting how they will show up in form. When we do that, we actually create a space for the miraculous to occur because we do away with the limitation of the ego. That feeling then becomes your goal and your tool for manifestation.  We can then request, declare, vision board and manifest away, aligning with opportunities to create more of that feeling in our lives right now.