We’ve goals. We select them because we like the output, we want the output. That’s our desire and that’s how we’ve been programmed to think about goals and moving forward in life.
We’ve been programmed to select goals and then go towards them with all of the hard work. But that’s not how the real journey goes.
Even after selecting the most audacious and ambitious goals, we fail, don’t get there, get distracted locally(every day), and also move to a different path in between.
Why does this happen?
Because this is not how things work.
Goals are there only to give you the direction and the outcome/result you want.
We overestimate the goal and underestimate the little actions that we’ve to do on regular basis to get there.
We don’t even think about those actions while setting goals. What we desire is for the outcome. This is a very little detail that I learned today but it completely changed the way I look at goals and actions that get there.
Note: I’m intentionally using the word actions that get there and not the word process because the process is very abstract and it acts as a hindrance to deal with concrete i.e. actions.
So, next time, don’t think about the outcome/result that you want after ticking the goal but think about the actions that you’ve to do continuously to get there. Make the selection based on daily actions that get you there and not solely based upon the outcome.
Desire for the outcome doesn’t bring outcome, it’s taking actions continuously that brings the outcome.
This will be hard to accept at first because it will bring you out from your hypothetical fantasy world and will throw you into the real world. And your focus will shift from the good feelings/emotions that come from visualizing the outcome you want to have to the pain/hard work/commitment that comes with performing those actions in continous manner.