Drop Your Goals (And Man­age Your Life) by Michel Fortin is a book writ­ten over a decade ago as the author was going through some tough times.

The result is a pow­er­ful look at how to stop set­ting goals and to start look­ing at your pri­or­i­ties and val­ues instead — called “guides” rather than “goals.”

It’s a bit spir­i­tual and meta­phys­i­cal in nature, so please read with an open mind. How­ever, the strate­gies it offers are real and practical.

I highly rec­om­mend that your read this book, which is brought to you free, and start using the G.O.A.L. method out­lined in the book, with tem­plates at the end.

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Michel Fortin: If you look at the laws and rules and all that won­der­ful stuff, they do exist for a pur­pose. And I under­stand that. But I also believe in edu­ca­tion because the more you edu­cate peo­ple the more you will change the world rather than forc­ing it to change. So, if you’re going to help out some­body in their own lives you need edu­ca­tion. If you’re going to help out peo­ple to real­ize maybe they are bad peo­ple and they’ve done hurt to oth­ers edu­ca­tion is the answer.

It’s not pros­e­ly­tiz­ing. It’s not try­ing to argue with them. It’s just teach­ing them and teach­ing them until they’re ready to be taught and they’re ready to change. I’ve met a lot of peo­ple who change their lives because they’ve learned and they’ve decided to learn and that’s the key. Edu­ca­tion is prob­a­bly the most pro­found answer I can give to that ques­tion. It’s just education.

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“I con­ceive that plea­sures are to be avoided if greater pains be the con­se­quence, and pains to be cov­eted that will ter­mi­nate in greater plea­sures.“
– Michel Eyquem de Mon­taigne (Circa 1500)

Remem­ber that it’s not your goals that really count but how you live your life accord­ing to what’s impor­tant to you. If you feel you can not incor­po­rate this sys­tem with your cur­rent job or other respon­si­bil­i­ties, you should first try it out.

You might find out that your job is indeed part of your pri­or­i­ties or that it doesn’t mean any­thing at all to you. If the first is true, then you will have a greater zest and love for what you do. How­ever, if the sec­ond is true, then start look­ing for some­thing you love or would love to do.

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“Your only oblig­a­tion in any life­time is to be true to your­self. Being true to any­one else or any­thing else is not only impos­si­ble, but the mark of a fake mes­siah.“
– Richard Bach

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must fol­low as the night the day, thou canst then be false to any man.“
– William Shakespeare

I believe that the path to true per­sonal great­ness can be found through the use of a per­sonal jour­nal. Remem­ber that you will never be as suc­cess­ful as you will be to your own self, and the jour­nal can enlighten you in more ways in this area than you would have ever thought pos­si­ble. Many great suc­cess­ful men and women have kept per­sonal journals.

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“The trou­ble with so many of us is that we under­es­ti­mate the power of sim­plic­ity. We have a ten­dency it seems to over com­pli­cate our lives and for­get what’s impor­tant and what’s not. We tend to mis­take move­ment for achieve­ment. We tend to focus on activ­i­ties instead of results. As the pace of life con­tin­ues to race along in the out­side world, we for­get that we have the power to con­trol our lives regard­less of what’s going on out­side.“
– Robert Stuberg

“First, all rela­tion­ships are with your­self — and some­times they involve other peo­ple. Sec­ond, the most impor­tant rela­tion­ship in your life — the one you have, like it or not, until the day you die — is with your­self.“
– Peter McWilliams

Remem­ber that your inner self is your great­est source of all that feeds you along the road of life. It’s what builds you as a per­son. It’s your val­ues, your pri­or­i­ties, your mind, and espe­cially your peace of mind. Most impor­tant, it’s your self-​​image. Since your image is a mere reflec­tion of your self-​​image, then what goes on out­side of you is an indi­ca­tion of what goes on inside.

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“There are many who are liv­ing far below their pos­si­bil­i­ties because they are con­tin­u­ally hand­ing over their indi­vid­u­al­i­ties to oth­ers. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be your­self. Be true to the high­est within your soul and allow your­self to be gov­erned by no cus­toms or con­ven­tion­al­i­ties or arbi­trary man-​​made rules that are not founded on prin­ci­ple.“
– Ralph Waldo Trine

“Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.“
– Miguel de Cervantes

In every­thing you do or want to do in life, you are always gov­erned by law and not by chance. Nat­ural laws are prin­ci­ples or expla­na­tions of why things are the way they are. Prin­ci­ples defined by Web­ster are “fun­da­men­tal laws or facts of nature.” Out of the many you have read or will read about in this book, there is one, how­ever, that is the foun­da­tional prin­ci­ple to all success.

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“Peo­ple say that what we’re all seek­ing is a mean­ing for life. I think what we’re really seek­ing is an expe­ri­ence of being alive, so our life expe­ri­ences on the purely phys­i­cal plane will have res­o­nance within our inner­most being and real­ity, so we can actu­ally feel the rap­ture of being alive.”

“Fol­low your bliss.”
–Joseph Camp­bell

Over the years, I have read many books on mind power, self-​​empowerment, time man­age­ment, suc­cess and achieve­ment, phi­los­o­phy, and spir­i­tu­al­ity. I’ve attended many sem­i­nars, lis­tened to moun­tains of tapes, and took numer­ous classes. And the one com­mon thread I have found in all that I have learned was that they all taught in some way that a person’s outer world is some­how con­nected to his inner dimension.

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