Don’t be a servant of your goals; YOU are the master, let your goals be the servant!

Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

 

Whatever we keep practicing, we become good at that thing.

 

When we see someone good at tennis, we know that he has been practicing a lot and failed a lot before he “got it”. But we also know that he probably had a good coach, or teacher or good models to follow.  And good methodology to practice. The key is to practice. And practice effectively.

 

Most of us are not good at setting goals, or have given up on them after many years of “goal frustrations”.

 

Many of us (myself especially) have practiced setting goals based on exterior metrics, such as “getting 50 new customers”, or “achieving 50 million dollars sales”, and not achieving them. We repeat the process of setting such goals, and then not achieving them.

 

Setting goals based on such metrics (exterior metrics), it doesn’t take long before we realise it’s not fun and we give up on “setting goals”.

 

It could take an instant (as for some people), or take decades (as in my case), for the penny to drop. To realise that our goal setting created suffering in our minds because:

(1) We were attached to an exterior outcome which is totally outside our control. And this outcome is like a bottomless pit. Because once we reach the “50 million dollars” sales goal, then the goal is moved to “100 million dollars”, and so it continues to make us somehow dissatisfied.

 

(2) We were totally infatuated with our goal. So when we finally realise that we have to give up or change our goal, it felt like separation from our lover.

 

(3) We were not embracing the process of setting goals.

 

Once we separate the goals themselves from the “inner workshop” the process of setting the goals lead us to, we can begin to allow the goals to be the servants of the “inner workshop”. The external goals no longer keep us attached. We can easily let go our the goals and keep the intelligence and sanity we have nurtured while “doing the goals”.

 

I am curious, would people become happier and have a healthier relationship with their goals, and being more effective, if they can start seeing their goals as the servants rather the masters?