Notes by Sanna Luthra

1/25/23

Quick recap of Story

• Student asked teacher question relating to goals
• Preacher takes student to lake and pushes him/her in lake
• The immediate and only goal of the student was to survive
• Teacher’s message to student: To focus and be discerning, and most of all, committed to that one goal (no external thoughts disrupted that one goal of survival for student)

Lesson Topic: Goals – How to be consistent with them 

• Be more discerning with responsibilities – prioritize goals & efficient with time management
• Have your goals transform your management and efficiency in your journey of life 
• Sumanji stated: “The greater the goal, the greater the transformation”
• Align goals according to you, then your family, then community, then society 
• When looking at your goals, look at the bigger picture (think bigger!) 
• How will your goals positively impact society?

The Four Types of Goals: Immediate goal, short-term goal, long-term goal, infinite goal

Immediate goal – goals relating to present (e.g. responsibility of cleaning dishes, doing homework, going for a walk, etc.) 

→ Immediate change in current moment to accomplish daily responsibilities

Short-term goal – Within a longer period of time (within a few months) (e.g. strive for certain grades for the semester, exercise goals, etc.)

→ Make small decisions through immediate goals, which leads to short-term goal 

Long-term goal – Very long period of time (a couple years) (e.g. aiming to get accepted at a certain university, retirement plan, vacation, etc.) 

→ something that requires a lot of effort within the span of a couple years

→ Requires quite a bit of self-reflection

→ short-term goals added together = long-term goal

**According to age, different perspective on these goals (long-term goal for a toddler can be a time span of a couple days whereas a long-term goal for an adult can be a few years)

Infinite Goal: Happiness – ultimate goal of life

• Power, position, pleasure are not the answer
• Good person striving towards organized goals leads to quietude mind 
• Characteristics of a quietude mind: receptive, readily available & ability to recall
• Available – emotionally and physically present in the moment that can be accurately used at any time
• Receptive – Ability to quickly absorb, retain, and internalize information
• Recall – Ability to recollect information from memory 
• These small goals from immediate, to short-term, to long-term leads to the ultimate goal of happiness (purity of mind)
• You know once you’ve reached this goal → will then experience the feeling of lightness, freedom, and balance of life (ability to calmly face challenges without hesitation, fear, or anger)

Question of the Class

Would you rather be . . . .

Successful, famous celebrity?
Pro-athlete?
Doctor?

Engineer/amazing musician or artist?

A good person?

True answer: You can be any of these while being a good person. In fact, you can use the advantages of these careers (e.g. successful celebrity) and spend your money as a donation to charity. The truth is that there is not one correct answer, you can be any of these while being an amazing person.