Thinking differently about goals
Usual issues with having lofty goals is that once you hit them you’re left with the feeling of “now what?” What if there were better ways?
I was watching a short video from Jason Lengstorf where he interviewed Adam Argyle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlRVMknHSqM) and they were talking about having a “dream job” and where to go once you’re there, or what to do once you’ve “hit your goals” among other things.
Usual issues with having lofty goals is that once you hit them you’re left with the feeling of “now what?” It’s jarring, it’s weird, and then you have the whole mental gymnastics of coming up with yet another lofty goal while also having a mini existential crisis of trying to figure out whether the goal you just achieved was really your goal at all.
Adam does a wonderful thing where he picks a goal that’s not a “one-shot done and dusted, can be checked off and you move on” type, but instead a state of continuity. His goal is to be continually in a state where that state keeps doing things he wants to achieve, in his case, have his enthusiasm rub off on people. As long as he keeps that up, he’s achieving his goal, and it’s not done.
I’d like to propose a third way to think about goals: not to think about them as goals, but rather as steps, much like on a ladder. That way you can still have the checkpoint kind of targets — have X in the bank, get hired by Y company, buy a Lambo, etc —, but you also avoid the existential crises that come with achieving them.
If you play video games, especially role playing ones, think of them as objectives, quests, or side missions. You can keep completing them and picking up new ones as you have more capacity to deal with them.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash