Forget Your Goals to Achieve Them (long term ones)
We all have goals, ranging from possessing things to impacting people. For the most people, purpose of life is to achieve goals. Whether they are worth the effort or not, goals can be one of the most influential elements that shape our life.
The self-improvement gurus and toxic motivational content producers are aware of this. They are consistently generating content that regardless of your situation, you should think about your goals all the time. Whenever you feel down or burnt out, just think about your goals. Can the secret to achieving everything you want be this obvious?
Of course not. From my experience, it is impossible to find fulfilling answers to such big questions. Cliche, I know but the best answer is almost always “it depends”.
So, why do I think that you should forget about your goals in order to achieve them? Let’s see.
First, we should discuss what makes one achieve his/her goals. Is it the goal that enables you to achieve that goal? What I mean by that? Let me elaborate.
Can you squat 100 pounds just because you aim to do so? Can you become wealthy only by aiming to become wealthy? Answer is obvious, no. Wishing stuff is not enough to possess them.
What you ought to do instead is, figure out a way that will help you achieve those goals. We need a bridge between our future version that will possess our desired things and our current self. If you want to squat 100 pounds (45 kg), that bridge may be working out regularly. If we regularly work out regardless of our goal, we’ll eventualy lift that weight. As you can see from this example, your goals do not directly impact your achievements.
What impacts your achievements, you might ask. Your processes do. Processes are the bridges we’ve just discussed. Your processes are the most important tool to achieving your goals.
Processes are usually not directly connected in the real world. Being wealthy is not the same as acquiring wealth. Therefore, we can say that your processes are independent from your goals.
Then why you should forget about your goals?
Because motivation that comes with thinking about your goals is extremely temporary. In most cases, it won’t last a day. Our goals are sweet but processes are sour. Trying to find motivation to processes by remembering about our goals can backfire. Because our goals look so perfect! Very different than what you actually need to do in order to achieve that. Trying to think oats as chocolate in order to eat them will not help you with your diet.
Here is what you should do instead
Find processes that you love which will help you achieve your goals. Processes shouldn’t be way too uncomfortable. After finding those liked processes, forget about your goals for a loooong time. Because thats how long it will take you to achieve them. Temporary motivations will not carry you on for years.
