Focus On Achieving Your Goals And Defeat Your Need For Perfectionism By Using The Completionist Mindset

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The Napoleon Bonaparte Guide to Achieving Your Goals in Life

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Achieving Your Goals: How To Go From Spinning Your Wheels To Incredible Traction

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Achieving Without Goals

Have you ever had a long amazing conversation with a friend, that took all kinds of turns neither of you could possibly have expected when you started the conversation? Wasn’t it awesome, to riff off each other, to explore unforeseen territory, to be free to wander and enjoy the time together?

What if, instead, you had a definite goal for how the conversation should go when you start out? A definite path and outcome of how you want the conversation to turn out? Let’s say you have an agenda, and every time one of you wandered off the agenda, you forced yourself to get back on it.

Would the conversation be better or worse, with a set outcome? Is it better to be free to wander, or to be set on one predetermined path?

I submit that the wandering is much better, much more amazing.

This is the goal-less path.

For many years I was fixated on goals, but at the same time was also simplifying my work life and working on being more content. I realized two things:

Goals (wanting to improve) are not consistent with contentment (being happy with where you are).Goals are not necessarily necessary (I thought they were for a long time, but they’re not) — and so using my minimalist philosophy, they should be ruthlessly eliminated.

And so I decided to experiment, and see whether goals were really necessary. I found out that they weren’t.

Here are the results of my (mostly) goal-less experiment:

We often think goals are necessary to achieve something, but in reality they’re not.Goals, as I define them, are having a set outcome … but why is that outcome the only good outcome? There are many, many great outcomes, and being fixed on one is very limiting.Goals are completely made up, with not a lot of information about what will happen in the future as we work on them. We invent them, out of some fantasy of how we want the future to go, but in truth they’re not realistic. And we can’t predict or control how the future will go, so setting goals is a useless activity.When we fixate on goals, we shut ourselves off to new opportunities that open up in different directions — opportunities that we couldn’t have foreseen when we started out. But because we’re fixated on the goal, we don’t allow ourselves to go in this new direction.When we fail to reach this fantasy outcome (which is often), we feel bad. But if we let go of the fantasy, we can just enjoy the work.When we are fixated on achieving a future outcome, we are not looking at where we are, nor are we happy with where we are. We can’t be, because we are looking at the future goal, and this is what motivates us (not enjoying the moment).When we have a future-oriented mindset, it doesn’t end if/when we achieve the goal. We achieve the goal, then immediately look to the next goal.

That’s just the start of the discussion — I could go on and on about this, but essentially this is a big illusion that our society believes in.

So how do you work without goals? Do you just do nothing? No, of course not … people who love what they do will wake up wanting to do something fun, something that benefits the world. I know this because even without a set goal, I am always excited to work on something.

How does this work? Instead of working with a fixed outcome (goal), work from moment to moment, using principles that work for you. Each moment, don’t ask “am I doing something to move me to my goal?” but instead ask, “Am I doing something right now that’s based on one of my values or principles?”

Your principles will differ from mine, but here are the ones that I’ve found work for me:

Love what you do. This seems obvious, but so often people do things that they’re not excited about. I try to find things that I love doing, and if there’s some mundane task I have to do for some reason, I either eliminate it or find a way to enjoy the hell out of it.Help others. I am strongly motivated by the desire to do things that will help people — my readers, my friends, my kids, people in need. And so this principle guides everything I do, including all of my writing. I highly recommend it.Build relationships & trust. Each thing you do, personally and for your business, should be building a relationship. I build relationships with my readers by being authentic and trying my best to help, and build relationships with friends & family in the same way. Being trustworthy as much as humanly possible is a great way to build relationships, so these two go hand-in-hand.Be curious. When you’re curious about other people, and about life in general, you tend to be a better listener, a better friend, more informed, and have fun each step along the way.

Those four principles work well for working with no goals. They also work well for having a goal-less conversation, or wandering the world, or collaborating with people.

So wake up in the morning, and instead of figuring out how to further your goals, ask what you really feel like doing right now. What will make you happy now, instead of some distant time in the future? I submit that long-term goals, some nebulous fantasy in the future, aren’t that motivating — we’re more motivated by something that can pay off now, which includes things that make us happy as we do them.

As you figure out what you feel like doing right now, consider these four principles. And then take action, knowing that you’re helping people, building trust and relationships, making yourself happy, and satisfying your natural curiosity about others and the world.

Then repeat that, each step along your daily journey. Each step along the way, you’re doing something you love, something in line with your principles. You’re not just lining yourself up with some predetermined outcome, but you are already there.

Some common questions I get asked a lot:

Q: Isn’t having no goals a goal?

A: It can be a goal, or you can learn to do it along the journey, by exploring new methods. I’m always learning new things (like having no goals) without setting out to learn them in the first place.

Q: So how do you make a living?

A: Passionately! Again, not having goals doesn’t mean you stop doing things. In fact, I do many things, all the time, but I do them because I love doing them.

Q: Isn’t it easy for you to give up goals now that you’re successful?

A: Sure, that might make it easier, but really it’s not the success that has helped me give up my goals … it’s my contentment with who I am. I know that I’m a good person, and am happy with who I am, and know that I’ll be OK no matter what outcomes turn up. That’s true for pretty much everyone reading this, no matter how much “success” you have.

Q: Don’t you really have goals when you do something, like write this article or try to follow your 4 principles?

A: Sure, you can call them that if you want. The terminology isn’t that important — the principles are. My definition of goals is having a predetermined outcome (something you want to happen in the future), and most people don’t call “write an article” a goal. Their goals are more along the lines of “get a lot of readers” or “make a lot of money” or “complete X”. So if you want to say I have goals, that’s fine, but just realize that for me, the process itself is the goal.

Q: How do you start down the path of no goals, if you’re used to having goals?

A: Just start following the four principles (or your own principles) right now. Like, in this very moment. When you find yourself coming up with a goal (and I do all the time), recognize that, and realize that it’s a fantasy, and let it go, gently.

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Achieving Your Goals in 2013: Preparing Your Survival Kit

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Free Audio – Why You Aren’t Achieving Your Goals

Hale Dwoskin, author of The Sedona Method, has created another free audio to share with you called Why You Aren’t Achieving Your Goals… and What to Do About It.

Hale’s previous audios have received more than 10,000 listens so far, so there’s been a lot of interest in them.

You can listen to these free audios here: Sedona Method – Free Audios

I’m continuing to listen to the Sedona Method Supercourse on my own, and I’ve been having some interesting realizations along the way.

I especially appreciate Hale’s distinctions between wanting and having. As I went through one of the exercises, I realized that I was distracted by something I was thinking about buying. When the new iPads came out in March, I considered buying one but figured my original iPad was still good enough, so I didn’t get a new one.

But as I would continue to use my old iPad, I kept having thoughts like, I’ll bet this ebook would look really nice on that new retina display, and It would be nice if I had something faster and more responsive, so I didn’t have to wait as long for apps and pages to load, and It would be really nice to dictate this email instead of typing it.

But I dismissed those thoughts as justifications for something I didn’t need. A new iPad is an extravagance I can live without, I told myself.

I also thought that I might justify getting a new iPad by giving my old one to my kids, who love using it for games and YouTube videos when they’re at my house. But of course that’s just an excuse to get something I don’t need, came the mental reply to myself.

But I can easily afford it.

Yes, but you don’t need it, so you shouldn’t have it.

But I think I would use it a lot.

You can use the old one. It’s fine.

I can’t have it just because I want it?

No, you can’t. You need a better reason than that. But any reason you propose would be invalid, so don’t bother trying to convince me.

As I did the Sedona Method exercise, I observed and released many thoughts related to attachment, resistance, and justification with respect to a seemingly simple purchase decision. As I did this, I could even hear my Mom’s voice when I was a kid, saying, “Awww, you don’t really need that,” as we left a store empty handed. I realized I had a good deal of conditioning from early childhood that said, You can’t have what you want. You don’t need it.

It only took about 10 minutes to unearth and release this emotional programming. Afterwards I put the decision aside for a day or two. Then I took a fresh look at my interest in a new iPad. I decided that if I still wanted one, I would get one. And if I saw that I didn’t really want one, then I would let it go and be content with what I had.

And if I wanted one and got one, there would be no need to justify the purchase, seek approval, or ask permission.

Once I got that emotional programming out of the way, my thoughts on the matter shifted. Instead of wrestling with the emotional aspects of the decision, I became more curious. I went to Apple’s website and looked at the features of the new iPad. I considered whether it would be a worthwhile and practical purchase based on my expected usage patterns. I talked to Erin about giving the kids the old iPad and asked if she felt they could share it fairly. I went about making the decision on more logical grounds, no longer so influenced by past emotional programming.

I no longer felt a strong emotional attachment to having a new iPad, nor did I feel any emotional resistance to getting one. Overall I felt pretty neutral about it, like how I might feel if I was deciding which stapler to buy.

In a fairly short period of time, I concluded that yes, this would be a sensible purchase, and I went out and bought one that day. I’ve been using it for a few days now, and I can see that this was a good purchase for me. I’m using it every day, I appreciate the higher quality display (much easier on the eyes), and the faster processor delivers a nice speed improvement in app launching and page loading. I don’t really care about the camera or some of the other features, but overall I’m content with the decision.

Now when I’m using the new iPad, I don’t feel distracted by emotional programming telling me what I can or can’t have. I simply use it.

This may seem like a fairly basic example, but it was still pretty eye-opening for me to experience the difference between wanting and having and to see how unconscious patterns were keeping me stuck. It’s good to know that those old patterns can be released — and without having to replace them with anything in particular. You can just let go of those old patterns, using effective techniques like those in the Sedona Method. Instead of being knocked around by emotional triggers, you can approach decision-making more sensibly and get out of your own way.

Incidentally, your past programming may be very different than mine, so you may even disagree with my decision, which is fine. I have no attachment to your approval or disapproval over this choice. But if this story triggered any emotional responses in you as you read it, take note that these reactions are coming from patterns stored in your mind, not from the story itself. The story is just a story and has no inherent meaning; if it meant something to you, then you’d surely benefit from releasing some of that conditioning since it can and will affect your behavior, such as by creating unnecessary obstacles for you when you try to pursue a larger goal.

Hale is right about one thing: Having is better than wanting. It’s more peaceful, productive, and intelligent to have an experience instead of wanting it, especially if it’s fairly accessible. It’s good to let go of attachment to false desires for experiences you don’t really want, but if you release that attachment and still observe the desire — this time as a more practical intention as opposed to an emotional trigger — then you might as well go get it instead of vacillating over whether you should or shouldn’t… could or couldn’t… would or wouldn’t…

Note that if this course sounds interesting to you, you can still get it for a 46% discount off the regular price.

Steve Recommends
Here are my recommendations for products and services I've reviewed that can improve your results. This is a short list since it only includes my top picks.

Getting Rich with Ebooks - Earn passive income from ebooks
Sedona Method - Free Audio - Learn to release blocks in a few minutes
Site Build It! - Start your own money-making website
Lefkoe Method - Permanently eliminate a limiting belief in 20 minutes
Paraliminals - Condition your mind for positive thinking and success
The Journal - Record your life lessons in a secure private journal
PhotoReading - Read books 3 times faster
Life on Purpose - Discover your life purpose

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The Small-Scale Approach to Achieving Great Things

“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.” - Old Chinese proverb

Think big. Live to the max. Change the world.

All worthwhile aims, I’m sure you’ll agree. These high-flying statements are meant to encourage us to achieve great things with our lives. But, rather than being an inspiration, do such huge goals just leave you feeling overwhelmed instead?

Sadly, many of us never begin developing new habits because we think a positive outcome will take too much effort. Or else, after we do start to improve our lifestyle, we give up far too soon because we don’t get what we want fast enough. It’s easy to be daunted by the size of the challenge ahead.

I know what it’s like. For 15 long years, I tried again and again to lose weight and get fit. Eventually, I managed to shift nearly 100 pounds – and revamp other aspects of my life – once I realized the most effective way to tackle change is to view it with a small-scale perspective.

Perhaps you’re struggling right now because you’ve set yourself targets that are difficult to reach, however hard you work. Maybe you’re focusing on the distant end result and are about to quit at any moment.

If so, you could benefit from thinking small to help you transform your life. I’d like to share my experiences in the hope that you will do exactly that.

“Think big!” may be the war cry of trail-blazing entrepreneurs but, surprisingly, it could be a limiting attitude for you to adopt straightaway.

On countless occasions, I was full of hope that I’d finally be able to establish a brand new healthy way of living. I planned to deal with a wide range of habits all at the same time: low fat eating; better food preparation; more exercise, and so on. Inevitably, after a few days or weeks (sometimes just hours), I’d ditch the changes and return to my old unhealthy behaviors,

Later on, I realized the problem was that I was taking on more than was feasible and expecting quick success. Overloading yourself with a variety of objectives is a surefire recipe for failure. I discovered that the best solution is to focus on only one habit at a time and to follow it slowly.

For me, the stumbling blocks to success were that I allowed myself to be overcome by the size of the task and how long it would take to get there. What really helped was to break down the overall journey into smaller steps and to stop looking as far into the future.

Before you can achieve something in life, you need to decide precisely what it is you want. It could be you intend to stop smoking; improve your fitness; give up gambling; get a new job, or whatever.

Avoid being vague when stating your ideal end result. The more detailed the description of what success looks like from the start, the better you’ll be able to divide it up into little steps.Ask yourself why you want this result. It’s extremely valuable to know these reasons because they will keep you motivated during what could be a lengthy journey ahead. Any reason is valid if it matters to you. Write every one down – you can make withdrawals from this ‘motivation bank’ when the going gets tough.Decide on an overall time frame. It’s essential that you set a realistic time frame for achieving your end result. If you set impossible deadlines, there’s a very strong chance you’ll fall short. On the other hand, if you have no end date in mind, you’ll be tempted to use delaying tactics and never get there.

Once you have a clearly defined idea of the what, why and how long of your end result, you can break down the entire process. Here are a few tips to do this:

1. Pinpoint the steps involved. Let’s say, for example, that your end result is to get a job as a teacher in 5 years time. Ask yourself what individual steps are needed to get there. Are specific qualifications and experience required? How can you gain these skills? What can you do to study or re-train? Come up with all the steps you can think of. The purpose of this exercise is to flesh out what is still a large aim into smaller, detailed steps. Each one represents a stepping stone towards achieving your end result.

2. Create a pint-sized action plan. Think of the steps as actions. Once you understand what actions are needed to achieve your end result, you can pull these together into a plan. In my case, the end result was “to lose 100 pounds in 18 months”. In order to accomplish this, I had to be a lot more precise about the actions to take. These included cutting down on junk food, eating more fruit and veg, and preparing healthier meals.

3. Set mini targets and daily/ weekly tasks. When you create your action plan, work out a series of targets you believe it’s possible to reach on the way to your end result. For example, a healthy weight loss of between 1 and 2 pounds per week is advised. Although the big target was 100 pounds, I was much more able to comprehend the mini weekly target of one and a half pounds. Decide what you need to have done in six, three and one months’ time to achieve your end result. Then break it down into monthly and weekly chunks, and from here you can set yourself simple daily and weekly tasks that are easily reached.

4. Keep on track. If the mini target for a given week isn’t achieved, don’t despair. The small-scale approach is so flexible that it allows you to make instant changes. On a weekly basis, ask yourself what happened and whether you could do anything differently? Carry over the shortfall to the following week and tweak your daily and weekly tasks accordingly. Keep on completing these small-scale tasks and meeting the mini targets, and the end result will be well within your grasp.

5. Forget the long-term. Get into the habit of ignoring the end date, and try to stop dwelling on what’s to come in the future. Don’t worry – you already considered the overall task and how long it would take when you set the mini targets and the daily/ weekly tasks. Now you can put the long-term view to one side, and really pay attention to achieving these smaller, shorter-term targets and tasks.

6. Adjust your steps. Along the way, you might find that what you’re trying isn’t as effective as you hoped. Or, other factors – such as job and family commitments – could affect your focus. Be ready to tweak your targets and tasks, when necessary. It’s perfectly ok to revisit and revise them to ease the load. Better to pace yourself than be stressed out.

7. Celebrate the little wins. One success leads to another, so use all your wins to spur you on. As each milestone is passed triumphantly, it’ll boost your motivation and you’ll gain a renewed confidence in your abilities. Reward yourself with something which makes you feel amazing – a new pair of jeans, a trip to the park with your kids, a relaxing homemade spa day. Treat yourself to anything which reinforces your resolve to reach the end. It needn’t cost a penny.

8. Resist the urge to supersize. It’s human nature to want results fast. At times, you might be tempted to rush at things and bite off more than you can chew, ending up back at square one. If you’re tempted to give up, refer to your ‘motivation bank’ of reasons why you want the end result. Be determined and concentrate on only the current stage of your journey, and not on what’s next. Reflect on how far you’ve come and what a waste it would be to throw in the towel.

Some folk will tell you that it shows a lack of ambition to go for lifestyle change on a smaller scale. They prefer to adopt an all-or-nothing mindset, believing it’s a sign of weakness to be slow and steady in your approach. That’s fine … let them take on the whole world, while you manage your habits on your own terms.

True, in order for us to grow, we’ve got to be prepared to stretch ourselves. But, there’s a fine balance to be struck between reachable and impossible goals, as they apply to you alone. Not everyone wants (or is able) to cope with overly ambitious goals, so don’t feel under pressure due to anyone else’s expectations.

There’s no escaping the fact that long-lasting lifestyle change requires an investment of your time and effort, as well as a pinch of patience. You can, however, make the road to achieving great things less intimidating when you break down the end result into many smaller steps.

You’ll feel fantastic when you finally complete the journey.

Read more articles from Scott McIntyre on colorful living – and how ordinary people can do great things – by subscribing to the Vivid Ways feed. You can also add color to your life by signing up for the free Vivid Ways newsletter.

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Achieving, without goals

It was only a couple years ago that I was completely focused on goals … and I accomplished a lot by setting and working on goals.
I ran several marathons, lost a lot of weight, got out of debt, started a fairly successful blog … the list of goals I achieved is long. These days, for more than a year now, I’ve pretty much given up on goals, though I’m still learning how that works.
The question most people have is: how do you achieve anything without goals? And the short answer is: the same way as you always did — get excited about something and do it!
Goals take credit for our accomplishments, like a bad boss does in the company’s annual report. But we all know who did the work to get those accomplishments — the workers. The boss just acted as a taskmaster but mostly got in the way with a lot of pressure and asking for time-consuming reports.
Goals are the same: we give them a lot of credit for our accomplishments, but they didn’t do the work. They might have given us a direction, but in the end, the work is done on a daily basis. Goals also require that we do a lot of admin work — assess and report on how we’re doing with our goals, etc.
But remove goals from the picture and look at the gritty details of how work gets done and accomplishments happen:
You get excited about something. Sometimes that’s through setting goals, but it could be other ways: inspiration from someone else doing something, setting a challenge for yourself, joining a group doing something exciting, or just waking up and wanting to do something great. Or you put on ‘Hey Mama’ by Black Eyed Peas and start shaking your booty and want to get moving.You take action.Maybe you report your new thing to others — on your blog or Twitter or Facebook or an online forum, or just telling your friends.You might make it a part of your life for a little while.You take more action.You tell people about how you’re doing.Pretty soon you’ve done something amazing.
Notice that goals are only one way to do this.
A minimalist blogging friend, whom I respect, said in a little discussion on this yesterday that he accomplished a lot with goals — and that’s true. But I believe he would have accomplished great things even without goals — they just might not have been what he expected.
He also said, without goals, a lot of people wouldn’t do anything — which I don’t believe is true. Freed of goals, I highly doubt that most of us would just sit around doing nothing. That would bore us — interesting, talented people want to do something. So we would — we’d get excited and create. Sure, there would be a few people who sit around doing nothing — but those people are setting goals for themselves and are sitting around not achieving those goals, and feeling guilty about it.
That’s the thing: even with goals, some people aren’t going to achieve anything, because they haven’t figured out how to motivate themselves. Goals don’t do that for you — they just make you feel guilty that you haven’t gotten them done. And even without goals, people who are motivated are people who will get excited and do stuff. They’ll accomplish something great, no matter what.
I’ve done just as much without goals as I did with: I’ve self-published my latest book, moved to a city, given up my car, created bootcamps for bloggers, gotten in better shape than I’ve ever been in, read a ton of books, created another blog, eliminated ads on Zen Habits while making it more profitable than ever, and countless other things I won’t even mention.
A few years ago, I did a post talking about your life’s purpose: The Key to Dying Happy.
It’s still a good method, but I don’t do it anymore. That doesn’t mean the things I set out as my purpose aren’t important to me anymore — I just go about doing them differently. Let’s take a quick look at how I do that. From the post:
Leo’s Mission
He was an amazing dad.He made his wife happy.He was a good, compassionate person.He made the lives others better (especially those in need).He was a great writer.He was happy.
Here’s the remarkable thing — you could say those things about me right now. I mean, whether I’m a great writer or whether I make the lives of others better — those are debatable, sure. But I definitely try: I’m happy, and I do my best every day to be a good father, husband, writer and compassionate person.
So I’m not so focused on the end of my life — but on right now. Instead of setting these goals for the end of my life (which I did several years ago), I get excited about all these things, right now, and do them every day because I’m excited about them. I love being a dad, a husband, a writer, a friend. I absolutely get up excited about these things every day, and am grateful I have the chance to do them.
You don’t need goals to tell you what to do. You know what to do (if you don’t, read this). You’re excited about doing it already — you just need to focus, and get to it.
Goals keep you focused on something in the future, instead of being present and enjoying what you’re doing right now. Goals keep you fixed on one path, which might not be the best path in a week or a month or a year. They keep you fixated on one thing, rather than being open to new opportunities, being flexible as the landscape changes, being free to pursue something you’re newly passionate about rather than sticking to something you’re tired of.
Being liberated from goals means you will always be excited about what you’re doing. And yes, you’ll accomplish things. You’ll get somewhere great — you just might not have known you’d ever end up there when you started.
Get excited, and do stuff.
Also: shake yo bambama.


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