Hi everyone,
Here is a BBC article about Goals.....and why we should give up on them.
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171117-why-we-should-all-give-up-on-goals-already*************
To be successful or fulfilled, we all know you need to have specific goals.
To achieve them, you should visualise, plan your steps there and attach deadlines and incentives. Work hard, even if you hate the work. And never stray from the path.
But that outlook, say a growing number of academic researchers, career coaches and thought leaders, isn’t only flawed, it may also, ironically, be keeping us from success.
“The key for success is, if you have somewhere you’d like to be in five years, don’t be so attached to it that it drives everything you do.”
“Goals in themselves aren’t bad,” says Lisa Ordonez, vice dean at University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. “It’s how we treat them.
Many aren’t necessarily our own ambitions, but what we think we should do.
That disconnect shows up even in the most basic example of what people want versus what they strive for. Most people say their main goal in life is to be happy.
But while research has shown that happiness results from simple things like expressing gratitude rather than buying a bigger house, or by prioritising family over career, our ambitions often focus on the latter. Worse, we may sacrifice personal relationships to get there – even though that’s the kind of trade-off most people come to regret.
That focus on outcome alone feeds into a hamster-wheel mentality. The Bhagavad Gita, the fundamental Hindu text, communicated the downside of this perpetual motion 2,200 years ago: “Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.”
If you really want to find fulfilment, you have to do something else, too. “Give yourself entirely to your work, yes. But let go of the outcome. Be alike in success and defeat,”
Despite how it sounds, it turns out that living with fewer goals, and with purpose, direction and openness instead, may be an even bigger challenge than sticking to a plan. But it can be more freeing and fulfilling.
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Cheers.
Sriram
