The Highest Goal - Part 2

Yesterday, I introduced the book, The Highest Goal: The Secrets That Sustain You in Every Moment, by Michael Ray. Best selling author Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, attended a class taught by Michael Ray at Stanford in 1982 and wrote the Foreword.

I left yesterday’s post with the following question:

How do we determine our highest goal?

To determine our highest goal, Michael Ray asks us to think back at a task or project that was the most meaningful in the last week. What made it meaningful? This process of pondering what is most important and satisfying to us leads to a better understanding of the “Most Meaningful Thing.” This is different for each of us and can be expressed in a word or two, Examples include: Peace, communication, connection, fun, creativity, energy, etc.. As I thought about this, I selected the words facilitation and catalyst as being my Most Meaningful Thing.

Here is an excerpt from the book that moves this forward:

“What is your highest goal?
You can use the Most Meaningful Thing exercise to get an idea of the highest goal for you. Review your meaningful activity and the process you used to get to the one word. Look at the one word as a quality that represents you at core. Consider how that quality has operated in your life.”

Ray asks us to translate our Most Meaningful Thing into a short sentence or phrase that might be our highest goal. When I do this, I get:

To serve as a catalyst and facilitator such that individuals and groups experience breakthroughs.

This is just a brief flavor of what a highest goal is according to Michael Ray. The book offers many interesting examples and clarifications. So to explore your highest goal further, you might want to pick up a copy of the book.

It should be no surprise that there is some basic consistency between what Michael Ray is saying and what Stephen Covey is suggesting in his new book about his 8th Habit of Highly Successful People (The 8th Habit is: Find your voice and help others find theirs.). The our highest goal and our voice are surely rooted in the same core of who we are and should let become. Beyond the basic concept of the central purpose or driving ambition, Covey and Ray offer us different ways of cultivating and nurturing our core. I recommend reading both books!

Tomorrow, I will venture further into The Highest Goal and share Ray’s suggestions for how the highest goal can be used to generate an optimal life and experience.

Get your copy of The Highest Goal at:

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble.com

1800CEOREAD.com

Info about the Covey book:

Stephen Covey's new book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness comes out in November and is available for pre-order here on Amazon.