If you’re someone who wants to do things differently, have an awesome life, fulfil your potential. I bet you’ve come across this before. Motivational blogs, podcasts, or speeches that tell you to dream big and work your ass of to achieve the dream. It’s like everyone should set themselves goals they fail to see themselves achieve and then through endless hard work which for many of us incorporates lots of things we don’t want to do at hours of the day we don’t want to be doing them, we will inch infinitely closer to the distant top of the insurmountable mountain that is our goal. On this journey we will frequently ask ourselves: ”Is it worth it” and “Do I really want to be doing this?” But we try to silence this small voice in the back of our head. Instead of hearing it out, we turn to Youtube for the newest motivational video and gulp up its energy to keep us going.
Sounds familiar?
The grind
The hustle
The 9 to 5 to pay the bills and the 5 to 9 to work on our own business, up-skill, make more $$, or in some cases, simply complete the job that doesn’t fit between the 9 to 5 cut-off.
There is nothing wrong with this in principle… but this attitude tends to ignore a vital point.
Have you ever achieved one of those goals that initially looked unachievable? And if you have, how fulfilled did you feel when you did? How long did the positive feeling stick around for? Personally, I remember finally completing my Masters degree, a goal that for the largest part of the journey seemed like it would never be achieved. Did I feel overcome by joy? Did I feel ecstatic for weeks on end and convinced that my life was finally complete?
Nope, quite the opposite. With a sigh of relieve I shrugged my shoulders and said something along the lines of “Phew, thank god I don’t have to worry about that anymore”. I then kindly asked my Mum to collect the accompanying piece of paper while I jumped on my motorbike and set of for the trip of a lifetime.
During that journey from Australia to the Netherlands, my goal was to reach the Netherlands. But, low and behold, after 15 months of crazy adventures I reached the Netherlands and it was the greatest let down of the whole trip. I reached my end goal, but again it was empty, devoid of joy or fulfilment.
By now you must be thinking: “Sure sure, that’s all good, but what is your freaking point woman!”
So here it is: The point of setting goals is not to achieve them.
The point of a goal is to get you moving.
You set the goal to embark on the journey.
To get you out of bed in the morning with enough excitement to be doing whatever is required of you that day.
The journey to the goal is the point of the goal.
All the juice is in the journey. It’s in the joy, the struggles and the skills you learn along the way. It’s in the people you meet, the places you see and the lessons you learn.
So my advice: Don’t just set yourself big goals. Instead, plot yourself a journey that you will love to travel along, to a destination that is exciting enough to overcome the challenges along the way.