Focus – A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction: Part 17

Leo Babauta -USA

A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction: Part 17

Letting go of goals

 

 Medley Focus 2

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won

by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The

world is beyond the winning.”

– Lao Tzu

 

One of the unshakable tenets of success and productivity literature is that you need to have goals in order to be successful.

And from this tenet comes all sorts of other beliefs:

I know this, because I’ve believed it and lived it and written about it, for a long time.

Until recently.

Until recently, I’d always set goals for myself – short-term and long-term ones, with action lists. I’ve made progress on each one, and accomplished a lot of goals. And from this traditional viewpoint, I’ve been successful. So no argument there: goals work, and you can be successful using goals. 

But are they the only way? 

More recently I’ve moved away from goals, broken free of the shackles of goals. I’ve liberated myself because goals are not ideal, in my way of thinking: 

But most of all, here’s the thing with goals: you’re never satisfied. Goals are a way of saying, “When I’ve accomplished this goal (or all these goals), I will be happy then. I’m not happy now, because I haven’t achieved my goals.” This is never said out loud, but it’s what goals really mean. The problem is, when we achieve the goals, we don’t achieve happiness. We set new goals, strive for something new.

 And while many people will say that striving for something new is a good thing, that we should always be striving, unfortunately it means we’re never satisfied. We never find contentment. I think that’s unfortunate – we should learn how to be content now, with what we have. It’s what minimalism is all about, really.

 And if my philosophy is to be happy now, with enough, with the present, then how are goals consistent with this? It’s something I’ve tried to reconcile over the last few years, with some success.

 So if we are content now, and we abandon goals, does that mean we do nothing? Sit around or sleep all day?

 Not at all. I certainly don’t do that. We should do what makes us happy, follow our passions, do things that make us excited. For me and many people, that’s creating, building new things, expressing ourselves, making something useful or new or beautiful or inspiring.

 So here’s what I do, instead of setting and achieving goals:

 This has taken me time – letting go of goals is a scary and uncomfortable thing, but if you let them go gradually, it’s not that hard. I’ve slowly adapted the way I work, and learned to work in the moment, and go with the flow of the world that surrounds me (online and off).

 It’s a beautiful way of working. And not incidentally, I’ve accomplished even more this way, without making that a goal. It’s a natural byproduct of doing what you love.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”

– Lao Tzu