#Goals. I mean we see it all the time. The gurus want to convince us to shoot for outsized goals and then will them into existence. The self-help books will point to the metaphor of a GPS and say that you can’t figure out your next turn unless you have a clear vision of where you’re going. We all need a destination. Right?
Well, I beg to differ. While I think goals can be exciting and nurturing, in some ways, I think they are rather beside the point. If we spend all our time in pursuit of goals, we pretty much are sacrificing the grand majority of our time in attainment of those goals. Think about going to business or medical school. Yes, your goal might be to become a physician or CEO of a business, but if you hate being in school…then you are wasting quite a lot of time and money to get there.
But the thing about business and medical school is that they have finite endings. Often the big audacious goals that we are pushed towards by society are either never ending, or even worse, only make us happy for a short period of accomplishment. Then we are back to the drawing board trying to find some bigger, more audacious goal to aim for.
The achievement treadmill is real and it rarely serves us. The more we achieve, the more we want to achieve. Achievements, ie goals, bring us to a newer happiness baseline for brief moments before we habituate back down to baseline. It is just not worth it!
In my humble opinion, we should learn to become goal agnostic. When it comes to purpose, it is the process that is really important and not where we end the journey. Why? Because you are going to spend countless hours (and days, and years) getting there. If you don’t enjoy each peak and valley, what is the sense in reaching the summit? God knows there will always be more summits to climb towards.
On the other hand, I don’t think we should be goal phobic. Even big audacious goals have their place. But. But you better make sure that your happiness doesn’t hinge on reaching that goal. That is precisely when little p purpose becomes big p purpose. The result is that we are likely to become disappointed by our lack of agency to accomplish all that we want to accomplish.
Choose process over goals. Become goal agnostic but not goal phobic. Don’t find yourself miserable 99.9% of the time just to be elated 0.1% of the time. The elation fades.
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Path to Purpose Coaching
Over the last year, writing my new book The Purpose Code, I have spent a huge amount of time thinking about, writing about, and discussing purpose. I have offered one-on-one and group coaching to my mastermind group, Wealth With Purpose. These discussions stem from my real life encounters with dying hospice patients as well as the numerous interactions I have had with people after reading Taking Stock.
What I've found is that most of us who listen to the Earn & Invest Podcast struggle with three basic issues:
How do I define purpose in my life?
How do I transition to a more fulfilling career?
What is enough money look like? Enough life?
To help navigate these waters, I have decided to offer the Path to Purpose coaching program. This is one-on-one coaching with me to help you further define purpose, direction, and career. Sessions will be spread over five weeks with a goal to provide a more concrete and enjoyable path to crack the purpose code and start living your life now whether you are broke, pre financial independence, financially independent, or beyond.
https://www.earnandinvest.com/coaching