No goals?

[cacheborn]

Ummm yes but I need to think more about it. It's the ultimate question, isn't it? What do you really, really want? And yes, I agree that whatever state I ultimately want I can, in principle, feel that right now. I don't need the crutches of goal fulfillment and accomplishments to feel that. Sounds very Zen, but it's true.

Maybe, as is usual with me, I am over analyzing it. I should just try it and see.

Originally Posted by Angela

Sounds like feeling happy is what your heart's desire here, is that right?

And feeling happy is not a goal, it's a state -- you can do it anytime you want, right now. Why not just go ahead and feel happy? A year from now, if you're not feeling happy, you could just go ahead and feel happy, whether you've made achievements or not, and you could do that now, and now, and now, too. Or are you not willing to feel happy unless certain requirements are met over time, like doing achievements?

Or maybe it's more like fulfillment and satisfaction, rather than happiness, that you're thinking maybe you must do achievements in order to have. Those, too, are states that you can have right now, but they're also big motivators to have you making choices that work well for you in living a life you love. Do you feel great, fulfilled and satisfied, when you design a goal and do the steps? Does it occur like inspiration and possibility? Or does it occur like yet another item on a long to-do list, a burden, a struggle?

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by Mounds

There are certain goals in which a bit of guilt is a good thing. For example, my wife has been asking me for months to clean out the basement. I've accumulated a lot of boxes that are currently blocking a fire escape route. That goal will be accomplished today!

Goals for interests? No way! Goals for the mechanics of life? Sure!

-Tim

Bingo. Today morning I was just thinking about the same thing.

Even though Leo advocates no goal policy and adheres to it, he does commit to short term goals every now and then. Just last month he followed a 'do Yoga five minutes every day' thing for a month.

I think it's an important point. Otherwise, things that should be done but we do not want to do them, would never get done.

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by Lifeisamazing

Cool stuff. Let us know how your experiment goes.

I think if you want to run this experiment successfully, you should track a) how you enjoy your time, b) how productive you are (getting things done not how many things you do). I would be very interested to hear if you enjoyed your time more without goals and whether you were more productive or less productive. Maybe enjoyment increases but productiveness decreases.

Sure, I will keep you posted. If it becomes interesting, I might also start journalling it.

[VinceG]

Originally Posted by cacheborn

Bingo. Today morning I was just thinking about the same thing.

Even though Leo advocates no goal policy and adheres to it, he does commit to short term goals every now and then. Just last month he followed a 'do Yoga five minutes every day' thing for a month.

I think it's an important point. Otherwise, things that should be done but we do not want to do them, would never get done.

I do follow short term goals. Right now, I need to lose weight, so I'm committed to following a slow carb diet.

Life sometimes gets messy enough that I need a to-do list to keep track of it all. What I find is that half to three quarters of the things on my to-do list get done, mostly in the span of a day or two. The rest end up sitting there until I just put them out of their misery. Not everything our brains decide to do actually needs to be done.

This is really about reclaiming your time and attention from the tyranny of a risk-averse mind. You don't realize just how much of it goes to things a clearer mind would see absolutely no use for until you decide to just stop for awhile and smell the roses before doing anything.

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by VinceG

I do follow short term goals. Right now, I need to lose weight, so I'm committed to following a slow carb diet.

Life sometimes gets messy enough that I need a to-do list to keep track of it all. What I find is that half to three quarters of the things on my to-do list get done, mostly in the span of a day or two. The rest end up sitting there until I just put them out of their misery. Not everything our brains decide to do actually needs to be done.

This is really about reclaiming your time and attention from the tyranny of a risk-averse mind. You don't realize just how much of it goes to things a clearer mind would see absolutely no use for until you decide to just stop for awhile and smell the roses before doing anything.

Yes, otherwise the inspiration will never strike to do things that are not appealing but must be done. Who can get inspired to visit a Dentist, or do Taxes?

Agree about prioritizing the short term goal list. I think it's always possible to trim it.

[Beingist]

Not setting goals is pretty much a modus operandi for anyone like me, who calls himself a Beingist.

[VinceG]

I haven't done my taxes in well over 7 years. Haven't been to the dentist more than a handful of times in the same period. Life goes on.

[cacheborn]

I just remembered. Steve has done 30 day trial of no goals.

30 Days of Inspiration Recap « Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog

[CoolBee]

Just read that article of Steve's:

"I think inspiration works best for opening new doors and moving forward on fresh ideas. After that, I’d put my money on persistence and self-discipline to cross the finish line. Inspiration is a powerful resource, but it can’t substitute for perspiration."

I did a talk yesterday to some yr 13s on research and being a researcher and this actually ties in a lot with something I said to them at the end; getting a PhD is not about brains (if you can get a BS you have the brains IMHO) but about having an original idea and then persistence, persistence, persistence.

Some things we enjoy the process so can feel 'inspired' to do them. Other things we enjoy the end result but not the process so don't get the inspiration often enough.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Mounds

Goals for interests? No way! Goals for the mechanics of life? Sure!

Ideally, you would want to be automating or outsourcing the mechanics of life as much as possible ...... So that you free up time and energy for your interests.

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

Just read that article of Steve's:

"I think inspiration works best for opening new doors and moving forward on fresh ideas. After that, I’d put my money on persistence and self-discipline to cross the finish line. Inspiration is a powerful resource, but it can’t substitute for perspiration."

That's one of the plus points of Steve's blog. Steve does quite deep analysis, something that Leo has not done. So although Leo says that he is now living without goals, one has to fill in the details because he does not elaborate.

Yes, PhD is almost 100% persistence.

[Rimuel]

I would also advocate setting short-term goals. The future seems too stochastic that I wouldn't put my planning shoes against it.

There are certain types of people that can plan very well into the future though.

I'd say, set up time-activity blocks in your schedule and place the activites that lead to short-term goals into them. Pretty soon you'll be achieving your short-term goals.

Yes, I can certainly attest to goals in which the process is dreadful. I suppose we have to weigh the end against the mean to determine whether it's worth it. Perhaps this is what "suffering" is about as mentioned in religious texts.