5 Reasons Why You Should Give Up Your Goals and Live Goal-Free
How often have you struggled with your goals?
Most people set goals to get away from something.
Don’t have money? Set a goal to make $100,000/year and you’re on your way.
But there’s a problem hiding in plain sight.
It often doesn’t make you happy.
It makes you believe that you need something outside of yourself to be happy.
What you may not realize is that even if you reach your goal, you’ll want something else, so you’ll stay stuck on the hamster wheel, forever doing, but never getting anywhere.
People live like this without ever questioning what they’re doing, then they look back in regret as they take their last breaths of air.Do you want that to be you?
Goals have their place, but if you think they’ll make you happy, you will suffer.
1. Relief
You can have a goal, but you don’t have to take it so seriously.
When you relax the imaginary shoulds you’ve imposed on yourself, life becomes easier.
There’s relief.
There’s space.
You don’t have to constantly keep doing in order to get closer to your goal. There’s no need to up productivity, because there’s nowhere to go.
2. Open
Where do you want to go?
What will you get when you reach your goal?
Will you finally feel secure, happy, and free?
No amount of money, relationships, or things can give you these feelings. It’s like taking a pain killer. It’s not the painkiller that produces relief. It’s your body’s reaction to it. So it is with your goals. They don’t give you things, you give them to yourself.
Sure, you may say that it’s the reaction you want, but then again, do you want to give your power away to the external world?
There are people who are happy right now. How do they do it?
What can you learn from them?
3. Heart-Centered
When you stop putting so much weight on your goals, your world opens up, and you begin to listen to your heart and your intuition.
There’s something more to life than pure logic. You can’t figure out what will happen to make everything perfect. You can’t know what steps to take in order to get to where you want to go.
How often have your plans been obliterated when they came in contact with reality?
If you’re like me, it happens so often that trying to stick to plans seems ridiculous. Sure, make plans, and set goals, but stay open and go with the flow of life. But remember that life won’t bend to your will just because you have a plan.
4. Slow Down
If you hurry through life, it’ll pass you by. Slow down for a second and enjoy what you have now.
“But, I won’t be happy until I have X,” you might say.
You won’t be happy when you get X either, because there’s always going to be another X. And it won’t change the way you see the world. Think back to a time when you really wanted something. It made you happy when you got it, right?
What happened in the weeks and months after that?
5. Here and Now
When I’ve asked my clients what they really want. And I mean really want. It almost always comes down to spending time with friends and family, traveling, learning, and exploring life.
And going even further than that, it comes down to feeling a sense of peace, wellbeing, and joy.
These are very basic things that anyone can have right now. And even then, all of the positive emotions come from within you, not from the outside. You don’t have to be productive and work all day long. It’s a myth perpetrated by the miserable.
You don’t have to cram in five lifetimes worth of living into this one, because it’s not by doing more that you will be happy, it’s by being aware of what is here now.
So, relax, don’t take your goals too seriously.
Don’t take your life too seriously.
There’s nothing you have to do, and nowhere you have to go, except be here, right now, so you might as well enjoy it.
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Written on 11/19/2012 by Henri Junttila. Henri is a freelance writer and the founder of Wake Up Cloud, where he helps people turn their passion into a thriving lifestyle business. When you feel ready to take action, get his free special report. | Photo Credit: inkhong |
