The subtle art of not setting goals

Even the most productive, ambitious people can’t reach a milestone every single day. Milestones are nice, supplementary consequences of consistent work that’s done over a stretch of time. 

Achievement at any level requires a subtle but important shift in focus, a small but necessary mindset change.

Think process, not product.

That’s it. That’s the secret.

The most successful people don’t aim for accolades because they know that the best lessons are not learned at the milestones. 

They think in terms of small, daily deposits — routines and habits that require attention each day. Things that yield massive compound interest.

This mindset is in line with the overused saying, “enjoy the journey.” While cliché, the journey is where the magic happens, where success is built one small brick at a time.

The process is what happens on the way up the mountain. The slips and falls and stumbles. The lessons learned and the most teachable moments.

These are the things that hurt most, but they are also the things that test your mettle and character. The process is where the real good stuff is, and this good stuff is typically hidden on the other side of challenge.

Focusing your attention on the process allows you to forge your long term goals momentarily. 

Long term goals are often too big to accurately wrap your head around until you’ve already put in a great amount of work. This is where focusing on the daily deposits becomes necessary and helpful.

Imagine training for a marathon and aiming to run an entire marathon on the first day of training. That would only leave one injured, discouraged, and unlikely to ever attempt a marathon again.

But if one were to begin with just one or two miles, and gradually build up over the course of a year, then a marathon distance would become more palatable and realistic. The daily deposits  —  shorter runs each day before building up to longer runs down the line — are what afford the opportunity to even attempt a marathon in the first place.

People everyday focus on achieving mammoth-sized goals all at once, and pursue them without the required time and commitment.

This is where the subtle art of not setting goals comes in.

Focus only on the day at hand. Write in a journal. Make your bed. Go do one single workout. Practice the piano or read a book for 15 minutes. Do something without focusing on the long-term, without a milestone in mind. 

If you keep doing this over and over, the big goals will take care of themselves in the long run. 

If a process is good enough and if habits are developed properly, then the milestones become just another day in the process.

The product will create itself as a consequence of focusing on the process. This is how you can act out the miracle of the compound effect in real life. Things snowball slowly at first, but then dramatically and all at once.

Think process, not product.

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I used these ideas to write a bestselling book in a year while working full-time as a journalist. Learn more on Amazon.

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