The ego loves big goals like a sugar addict loves sugar. The ego will tell you that the bigger the goals you have, the bigger the person you are.

I should probably tell you now that I’m the kind of person who has very big goals. And if we had tea to jam on your life, and if you had even an iota of ambition, I would probably take that iota and get alchemical with it and blow it sky high. So, I’m the last person to be down on big goals. But I am usually the first person to ask, “So…Why do you want what you want?” Because…

You are not your goals. Your goals don’t dictate your worth.

Ambition is only an accessory to your soul — it’s not who you are. @DanielleLaPorte (Click to Tweet!)

Why is it helpful to keep this in mind? Because when you can detach your identity and self-worth from the size of your goals, you can see your heart’s vision. It may be wildly ambitious. It might actually be very simple and sweet. (The simple goals often take you the deepest into your self.) When you know that your soul is the steady power source, and that ambition is for play — you can choose to go big, or go home, and be fulfilled either way.

Danielle LaPorte is the creator of The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul — the book that turned into a day planner system, a top iTunes app, and an international workshop program. A Desire Map workshop happens every weekend somewhere in the world. Author of The Fire Starter Sessions and the wildly popular #Truthbomb series, Danielle is also the co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan and co-host of the Beautiful Writer’s Group podcast.

Entrepreneur Magazine calls her “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” A speaker, poet, former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, she writes weekly at DanielleLaPorte.com, where over four million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice — a site that’s been deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality,” and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes. The Huffington Post named her Twitter feed as one of the “12 of Wisest Twitter Accounts Worth Following.” You can find her @daniellelaporte just about everywhere.