My Goals

So I preach about how you can make your life your own. What do you want to make it? I've created a list of habits that I want to see in my life. I know that the recommendation is to create SMART goals - I'm not really a fan of those, even though my work team will tell you I am always asking them to specifically define what they want to accomplish haha 

Here are mine: 

Be physically active - the purpose of this is to be able to do the outdoor activities that I enjoy and improve my quality of life - demonstrate by being active as much as possible on a weekly basis. Run a marathon once. 

Continually learn - read books and articles in my spare time. Get the hell off Facebook and pick up a book - the purpose is that I find joy in enrichment. It also makes conversations more interesting. This is what I can do for me. 

Be relationship focused - this is pertinent to all of my relationships - explain my intent so I do not come across as rude - be forgiving - create boundaries - take time for myself - do not create expectations of other people - relationships will flourish as appropriate. Purpose - expectations create disappointment and never bring satisfaction. By being true to myself and not expecting from others, it allows others to flourish in their true selves. Respect others and their hearts. 

Write books - purpose - share what I've learned and collected. Help others to find the peace and happiness I have found. Make time for writing weekly. If a book is too intimidating, start with a blog. Do you see what I did there? ;) 

Eat well - eat whole unprocessed, vegan food. But if you are going to eat a hamburger, enjoy it dammit. Stop eating when you are satiated. Veggies veggies veggies!! Every day. 

Here are my goals. Do you have goals? What are your goals? Do you prefer SMART or zen goals? Are you continually re-evaluating your goals. If you'd ever like help in establishing goals or talking through the steps to achieve them, please let me know. My life purpose is to love and help others love so whatever I can do to be of service :) seriously, use and abuse me. 

<3xo

Sarah Anderson 

Walking away from my family's religion

Some people think that I walked away from the religion of my family so I can party or my political views are different than the church's. I want to correct that misperception. I chose to walk away because I've walked a spiritual path that is not constrained to one religion. I believe truth lies almost everywhere, it's in the details that things get fuzzy. I believe that church can be a good thing for some people so I respect their choice to attend. 

I just want to say that it is not easy. It is not easy to know that I disappoint and worry my family. My family has a strong conviction that I must complete certain religious practices to make sure my soul will be happy for eternity. I have not and I will not do those things. Every time we have a get together, I am urged to go back to church 3-4 times by different parties.  They believe my salvation and their own depends on reminding me. My beliefs strongly differ. The hard part is to see the sadness in my grandfathers eyes. He is truly worried. That breaks my heart. 

It would be easy to go to church. I know all the answers. I was a grade A student. I didn't drink. I knew how to pray and bear my testimony. It would be easy to go back so that in Utah, I would be more accepted. So my family didn't pray that I will return to church, because I know that they pray for me and I can only imagine that it always includes me returning to church. It would be easy to be certain in what life after death looks like. It would be easy to have a religious community to discuss the more vague parts of existence. 

But that's not me and I would not be authentic to my experience if I did. It's hard to be here and I hope my family will find peace, that they know that I do my best with what I know. I may be weak for this, but I can't date a Mormon boy. He would date me either because he wants me to go back to church, his conviction of the temple and marriage sealing is lacking or he is walking away from his faith. If he is walking away from his faith, which I imagine at some point he then would, I am not strong enough to walk with him. It is very hard and very scary. I will be there for friends who do it, but I can't do it again. The only other thing that has been this hard for me was walking away from an unhealthy marriage when I was still in love with the man. 

I am very spiritual. I don't have all of the answers, but I know we have no control over when we are born or when we die. I believe in the law of attraction. And I believe in love. I try my best to be a good person. And I hope that's good enough. 

<3xo 

Sarah Anderson