*From: L. Michael Hall* *2009 Meta Reflections #7*
*February 16, 2009* *META-GOALS* *FOR A META-YEAR* * * In these Meta Reflections I have been talking about *goals, *the time has now come to talk about *meta-goals. *And what is a meta-goal? Using Maslow's distinction between lower and higher needs, first level goals have to do with reaching and achieving the lower needs—money for surviving, paying the bills for food, shelter, etc., materialistic goals for safety and security as well as for your social (love and affection) as well as your self-value goals. So a *meta-goal *would be outcomes that enable you to reach your higher needs, your self-actualization needs and *being*-needs and values. Obviously, "the good life" begins with the lower needs and the goals that you set for surviving well, coping with financial, career, relationship, and status objectives. Yet these needs are also the basic "animal" needs—needs that we share with the higher intelligent and social animals. And, if this is all there is, it makes our way of life, our direction of life, our goals of life, and our definition of "success" in life wholly materialistic. That frame sells human nature short. It treats human beings as merely intelligent animals and ignoring the unique human needs. We need both. To enjoy the good life, we first need to fulfill our lower needs so that we can then move to the higher self-actualization needs. There our need will be for expressing and resolving our unique identity and fulfilling our *being* -needs. *Meta-goals are the meta-values of the higher life*—the aspirations of living for something more than just materialistic matters. The meta- or being-values include truth, excellence, order, unity, perfection, beauty, caring, meaningfulness, contribution, legacy, and so on. These occur at the peak of the pyramid and it is here that truly meaningful human life begins. Now in tough times, in times of economic turndown and recession, *meta-goals *(in addition to all of your basic level goals) is what will give you a special power to thrive—the power of resilience to keep a robust sense of bounce within you. What meta-goals have you set for this year? What meta-goals do you need in order to effectively survive the current economic downturn? What meta-goals would enrich your work and career? What meta-goals would make everything you do richly meaningful? Are there some meta-goals that would especially be valuable in tough times? Yes I think so. Consider the difference that *resilience, *as a meta-goal, would make. What if you set a meta-goal for developing *a never-say-die resilience *this year? Would that make a significance difference in your business, in your health and fitness, in your relationships, and so on? Would that contribute to the quality of your life? Would that provide a richness and robustness within your attitude and spirit and person? Or consider the meta-goal of *flexible adaptability. *Would that *being*experience create a richness and competence in the face of the changes that are occurring and that will occur? If you made the ability to improvise and adapt in a creative and innovative way within yourself your meta-goal, what effect would that have when you listen to the news? When you face an old way of doing business that no longer works? Or suppose you made *fresh-eyes of appreciation *your meta-goal. In Maslow's modeling of self-actualizing people, he noticed that this was one of the elements that characterized them. They were able to keep the child-like freshness of wonder and amazement and so did not discount or desacrilize things. Instead they were great sacrilizers—seeing things through the eyes of eternity so that they could see their value. And again, would that enrich your life? Would that take the quality of life to a new level? As you can tell, meta-goals as *being-*goals and *being-*values concern your inner development— your identity and character. It makes you rich on the inside and creates the basis for inside-out wealth. So if you are thinking about up-skilling this year (Meta Reflection #54, 2008), meta-goals are precisely those that you will want to focus on developing. And there's more. Meta-goals are valuable as end-goals, valuable in and of themselves, rather than merely being instrumental goals, goals designed to take us to the next step. And so as end-goals, meta-goals are themselves moments of peak experience. For Maslow a "peak experience" was any experience that give you a rush of joy and meta-pleasure, a sense of ecstasy so that you stand out from yourself and transcend yourself. And when you have them sprinkled throughout the days of your life, it gives life itself a new and higher quality. So what meta-goals would you like to set this year? What meta-state experiences would take you to a new level and quality of life? Yes, meta-goals are also meta-states—the higher level states that emerge from the meta-stating process. Perhaps now is the time to get the new book on *Meta-States *(2008) or register for a Neuro-Semantic training somewhere around the world (like APG). To your Meta-Goals! -- Salam Street Smart NLP! Teddi Prasetya Yuliawan Indonesia NLP Society <http://indonesianlpsociety.org>
