Welcome to Visionaries Pursuit, a podcast where we explore what it takes to turn your bold and inspiring ideas into reality. I'm Carolina Zuleta. I'm a life and a business coach and your host for this podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here. Hello, hello, and welcome to episode 10 of the Visionaries Pursuit podcast.
Welcome back, everyone. I hope you had a wonderful time during the holiday break. I certainly did. I was up in the mountains of Colorado with my family and friends and enjoyed the most beautiful time creating memories with my kids in the snow. And I really hope all of you had some time to create new memories for yourselves.
And welcome to 2025. I love the beginning of a new year because for me, it's a time when I reflect about the past year, where I've grown, what I've accomplished, and most importantly, what are my new desires? What are my new goals? What are my ambitions for this year? And as a part of this, because I talk with a lot of visionaries and I know That creating goals can be challenging at times.
Sticking to them for sure is challenging for many of us. I've designed a new workshop that I'm super excited to share with all of you that will teach you all of this and more. And I will make the full announcement next week in the podcast. Join me. Wednesday, January 22nd. So make sure you tune in. And if you're not part of my newsletter already, make sure you sign up so you get all the updates.
Um, to sign up, you can go to carosuleta. com forward slash podcast. Okay. And since we're at that time of year, we're all setting goals and visions. I want to talk about something that is not exactly goal setting, but I think it's as important as having the vision. So in this episode, episode 17, I want us to talk about the journey towards that goal.
The days we live between today and tomorrow. And when we cross the finish line, what psychology knows today about how as humans, we set goals is that we do a quick, many times unconscious estimate of how we are going to feel when we get that new thing, when we achieve that goal. So the reason why we want things in our life is because in an unconscious way, we think they're going to make us feel a certain way.
And what we want is that feeling. So, for example, you're saying, I want to launch this business, or I want to double my revenue, because you think you're going to feel more freedom, or you're going to feel more proud of yourself, or you're going to feel more successful, right? There is a feeling that you're chasing when you're chasing a goal.
But by now. Probably you've already achieved goals. And if you take a moment to look back, you will see that, yes, achieving that goal in that moment gave you satisfaction. You probably today still feel proud that you achieved it. The feeling that you imagined you were gonna have was either shorter lived than you thought, or you maybe didn't experience it exactly like you thought you were going to experience it.
We can also see this with the things we buy. You know, you've probably been saying, Oh, I want this new iPhone, or I want this new pair of shoes. And we're so excited to get them. And when we get them, yes, we're happy. Soon, they just become one more item we have, right? Like the, Happiness, meeting a goal or buying something brings to us is fleeting, it happens quickly.
And when I look at my life, I can see moments where I've had this experience. For example, when I started this coaching business, my dream was to make six figures. That was my goal. And then when I got there. It was like, okay, cool. I was already looking at seven figures, right? And it took one of my coaches to say, hey, Carol, look at what you have achieved for me to really stop and look at it and feel proud of what I had created.
Or another experience I had recently, last year, my husband and I bought our dream home. And for me, buying my dream home has been something that I've wished and I've desired for years. So buying it was something very exciting. And I always pictured that when I was going to be living in that new house, life would seem perfect.
I would be happy all the time. I would feel so much joy. And yes, I am still so happy with our house. But the truth was that the experience of buying the house was very stressful for me. Uh, I was worried about things going well, about the negotiation process. And then when I moved in, I started noticing that I wasn't feeling that happy.
It was because my mind was focused on the things the house was missing. We needed to move. to fix instead of really enjoying this beautiful place we can now call our home. So I want you to take a moment and think about your own experience, right? When have you achieved a goal that you thought was impossible that was so far away and you got there and you're like, okay, great, let's go to the next one.
Or you purchased something that you really wanted and then soon you were not feeling that level of satisfaction. And why I want us to talk about this today is because as much as having a goal and a vision is super important in our lives, it's the journey that matters, is how we live our life day to day that truly gives us our joy, our love, our gratitude, our happiness.
One of the podcasts I love listening to is called Armchair Expert and Dax Shepard, the host, often ask the celebrities he interviews the same question, does getting an Oscar or making all this money or being a celebrity, is it giving you the feeling you thought it was going to give you? And 100 percent of the time, these artists, these celebrities say no, because again, our emotions are coming from our thoughts, not from the achievement of things.
So, there, that place you want to get to when you achieve your goal is no better than here. There, you will still be living with yourself, with all the emotions, with all the thoughts, with all the limiting beliefs that you have today. So, yes, pursue your dreams, but my invitation today is that you focus on your present moment.
Dream big, but don't hold your happiness until you get there. Learn how to live happy every day. It's kind of like when we go on a hike, right? We have a goal to get to the top of the mountain, but we can either do that hike just focusing on go fast, go harder, this is so hard, keep working and get there, or we can do the hike Appreciating nature, talking with a friend, focusing on our breath, being grateful for our lives, and which hike is more pleasurable.
Both get you to the top of the mountain, but when you are present in your day to day, in your experience, your life is more rich. The days, the multiple days that takes to get to a goal is the time that makes up your life. So I want you to take a moment and think of that goal or that vision you have for yourself and ask yourself, how do you think you're going to feel when you get there?
What is that emotion you're Wanting to have. And then ask yourself, how can I experience that emotion in my present moment? If it's success, how do I feel successful today? If it's proud, how do I feel proud about myself today? If it's gratitude or freedom, how do you experience those things today? In coaching, we believe all of our emotions are created by our mind, by our thoughts.
So where do you have to focus your attention? Learn What do you want to be thinking every day that is going to give you the emotions that you want? But one of the things that I reflect often is, is that we are currently living in paradise. As far as we know today, and we've tried for years to find another planet like ours, and we found thousands of exoplanets and more than trillions of stars.
And yet we haven't found a planet like ours. So when I think about that, when I reflect about that, when I think about, you know, The biodiversity we have in this planet, the number of animals and plants and colors and weathers and views and culture and music and art. I feel so much gratitude. My life experience is so much better by just thinking that I'm living in paradise and appreciating that paradise in the present moment.
I, every day more, I see people attached to their phones. Listen, me too. I'm working on this. This is one of the big things I want to change this year. And our phones are constantly giving us these shots of what I call fake dopamine. Because yes, it gives us a release of dopamine when we're scrolling, but it doesn't give us true satisfaction.
And we're missing out on the things that as a human being really are meaningful to us, really give us fulfillment. And it's the other people around in our life, looking into their eyes, having meaningful conversations. Touching them, hugging them, appreciating nature, being grateful, being grateful for ourselves, understanding how magnificent each of you is and truly taking it in.
One of the potential negative consequences of having goals is that we focus on what is missing for us to get there and we forget To appreciate everything we already have. So this episode, as you set your resolutions for this year, I want you to remember, you get to want what you already have. When we think about what we want, we usually think about what we don't have that we want.
But it's a powerful exercise to say, I still want my husband, I still want my kids, I still want this job I have, I still want these clothes I have in my closet. Every day, between today And when you achieve your goal is your life, the goal achievement will be just a moment in your life. It's all the days that matter.
So as you're setting your goals and creating your vision for this year, I want to remind you to focus on what you already have to appreciate what is around you, the people that are around you, and maybe. 10 percent of the time you can focus on the gap so you can continue closing it, but spend the majority of the time appreciating what you already have.
I have found that the more I focus on gratitude, the more I focus on loving my life right now, the easier is the path to get to my goals. The more fun I have, the more I enjoy the journey. So, please set big goals, big dreams, and be present, let go of your phones, and remember you are living in paradise. See you next time.
If you're currently pursuing a big, bold idea and would love some support, let's talk. In my coaching program, I'll teach you how to manage yourself, your own thoughts and emotions. as well as your team and your money so you can turn your beautiful idea into a reality. Go now to carozuleta.com slash consult that is c a r o z u l e t a dot com slash consult and complete the form to book a complimentary call with me.
See you there!
