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Achieving Without Goals
- Thread starter Ironplates
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it is my understanding that feelings cannot think. furthermore, feelings come from action or not acting.
i also think that rest and a slower pace helps increase effectiveness.
a good read is [the power of full engagement]
when one drives fast, the perspective get's narrow.
when one drives slower, the spectrum and band width may be wider to capture more perception.
perhaps EFFECTIVENESS and RESULTS are more important.
According to Peter Drucker in Managing for Results, i paraphrase,...
RESULTS come from exploiting opportunity, consequently, fixing problems just get things back to what they where in the first place.
EFFECTIVENESS comes from DOING THE RIGHT THINGS.
what is the right thing to do? Priorities?
what are the priorities? for me it is my wife first, and whatever is left over for the rest of life. Relationship matters.
All I needed to know I learned in Triathlon
http://voices.yahoo.com/all-needed-know-life-learned-triathlons-12119749.html?cat=14
Looks to me you like talking in generalities:
"feelings can not think" : what does it mean
Having the right priorities is certainly important.
Mine would startwith:
1) My OWN good health
2) My OWN excellent mental health
3) My KIDS first whenever they come
I suppose you've never seen unlucky and uninformed people
finished married with some hoes, psychos, and the whole junk.
Looks like I have grown a lot over the last 3 years.
But each one has their own priorities, and mostly choices.
What about having input goals rather than output goals. An input goal would be something like: 'take all my good set ups decisively with full preparation and appropriate risk'. An output goal is something like 'make 50% returns this year'. The difference is that input goals are much more under your direct influence and control, output goals are usually outside your control to a large degree.
If you have no goals at all then how are you going to ensure you get what you want? Every conscious activity (as opposed to unthinking impulse) has a goal e.g. you shower to clean up your body, you pour a drink to quench your thirst, you go to meet or call a friend so you can have a conversation with them, you drive a car to get from A to B, or you seek out a twisty road to get driving pleasure.
Even if you just mean big picture goals, I've spent much time living with no wider goals and I can assure you there is nothing zen about it, usually you just fritter away time and money pursuing mostly meaningless activities.
Having goals does not mean that every moment of your life must be goal-driven. But some of it should be, unless you are happy just being a dreamer and drifting through life, following your animal impulses instead of reflecting on where you are going in life, what your legacy will be. Goals and conscious decision making rather than impulsivity is one of the things that distinguishes us from animals, goals are why you are able to type this on a computer and publish it for free for the world to see.
Obsession with, or excessive attachment to goals, is a bad thing in most cases. Goals are best pursued in a relaxed fashion, it should be fun to seek goals, not too pressured.
"Goals (wanting to improve) are not consistent with contentment (being happy with where you are)."
Wrong. It is perfectly possible to be happy where you are, and also to pursue improvement, so long as you do not attach your sense of wellbeing to the results. In fact, pursuing improvement is critical to happiness because improvement and skill advancement (and performance) is one of the main ways to get into a flow state. Have you ever learned a new skill as an adult, then made some breakthrough in it? Good feeling, wasn't it? How do you get that without attempting to improve?
Personally if I am not trying to improve and perform well in all areas of my life, then I experience low motivation, extreme boredom, and unhappiness. Lack of goals was a main reason for some of my most unpleasant life experiences.
If you have no goals at all then how are you going to ensure you get what you want? Every conscious activity (as opposed to unthinking impulse) has a goal e.g. you shower to clean up your body, you pour a drink to quench your thirst, you go to meet or call a friend so you can have a conversation with them, you drive a car to get from A to B, or you seek out a twisty road to get driving pleasure.
Even if you just mean big picture goals, I've spent much time living with no wider goals and I can assure you there is nothing zen about it, usually you just fritter away time and money pursuing mostly meaningless activities.
Having goals does not mean that every moment of your life must be goal-driven. But some of it should be, unless you are happy just being a dreamer and drifting through life, following your animal impulses instead of reflecting on where you are going in life, what your legacy will be. Goals and conscious decision making rather than impulsivity is one of the things that distinguishes us from animals, goals are why you are able to type this on a computer and publish it for free for the world to see.
Obsession with, or excessive attachment to goals, is a bad thing in most cases. Goals are best pursued in a relaxed fashion, it should be fun to seek goals, not too pressured.
"Goals (wanting to improve) are not consistent with contentment (being happy with where you are)."
Wrong. It is perfectly possible to be happy where you are, and also to pursue improvement, so long as you do not attach your sense of wellbeing to the results. In fact, pursuing improvement is critical to happiness because improvement and skill advancement (and performance) is one of the main ways to get into a flow state. Have you ever learned a new skill as an adult, then made some breakthrough in it? Good feeling, wasn't it? How do you get that without attempting to improve?
Personally if I am not trying to improve and perform well in all areas of my life, then I experience low motivation, extreme boredom, and unhappiness. Lack of goals was a main reason for some of my most unpleasant life experiences.
A goal does not require a fixed outcome, that is a silly definition. It could be 'pursue a better work/life balance this year' or 'improve my physical condition by adopting an exercise regimen' or 'put 20% of my net income into a diversified portfolio of investment assets each month' or 'travel round France for 1 month'.
How are goals completely made up? For example, someone might have a goal 'pass my school exams this year so I can get to college'. That is a very concrete goal, one that will have a major impact on someone's life outcomes.
"we canât predict or control how the future will go, so setting goals is a useless activity."
Really? I predict the sun is likely to rise tomorrow; I predict if you mainline heroin and have unprotected sex with rent boys 5 times a day, your life expectancy will be significantly worse than if you don't.
We can't control the future but we can influence the future quite easily - spending more than you earn will make your poorer; eating junk food and not exercising will make you fatter and more unhealthy; riding a 200bhp motorcycle at twice the speed limit through busy traffic each day will make you much more likely to be injured, die, get ticketed or jailed than taking public transport.
How about considering some positive outcomes of goals? For example, in the past I set a goal of getting a basic first aid qualification, so that if someone is injured in my presence (or I am myself), I am able to improve the odds of not dying. If I had just gone with the flow I would never have done that, so if someone has a heart attack or a road accident and I am around, I would not know the first thing about how to treat them.
Waking up and asking what you feel like doing is terrible advice. If I do that, I will just spend all day getting drunk, trying to have unprotected sex with women, chilling out with friends, and speeding to excess on the public highway. In a few years I will be fat, broke, STD-infected, with several unwanted kids and child support bills, and homeless, if I manage not to die first. Great plan! This is a philosophy of mindless animalistic hedonism.
Love what you do? Does that apply to taxes, being drafted, paying bills, getting to work on time, dealing with rush hour traffic, queues, bureaucrats, or taking out health, legal, motor and travel insurance? All these are necessary but hardly fun, let alone something people love doing.
I think your recommendations are hopelessly unrealistic, you completely ignore the positive sides of goals, and you seem to confuse goal-setting with slavish obsession with outcomes. It is not necessary to be an unhappy, performance-obsessed workaholic to benefit from goals.
How are goals completely made up? For example, someone might have a goal 'pass my school exams this year so I can get to college'. That is a very concrete goal, one that will have a major impact on someone's life outcomes.
"we canât predict or control how the future will go, so setting goals is a useless activity."
Really? I predict the sun is likely to rise tomorrow; I predict if you mainline heroin and have unprotected sex with rent boys 5 times a day, your life expectancy will be significantly worse than if you don't.
We can't control the future but we can influence the future quite easily - spending more than you earn will make your poorer; eating junk food and not exercising will make you fatter and more unhealthy; riding a 200bhp motorcycle at twice the speed limit through busy traffic each day will make you much more likely to be injured, die, get ticketed or jailed than taking public transport.
How about considering some positive outcomes of goals? For example, in the past I set a goal of getting a basic first aid qualification, so that if someone is injured in my presence (or I am myself), I am able to improve the odds of not dying. If I had just gone with the flow I would never have done that, so if someone has a heart attack or a road accident and I am around, I would not know the first thing about how to treat them.
Waking up and asking what you feel like doing is terrible advice. If I do that, I will just spend all day getting drunk, trying to have unprotected sex with women, chilling out with friends, and speeding to excess on the public highway. In a few years I will be fat, broke, STD-infected, with several unwanted kids and child support bills, and homeless, if I manage not to die first. Great plan! This is a philosophy of mindless animalistic hedonism.
Love what you do? Does that apply to taxes, being drafted, paying bills, getting to work on time, dealing with rush hour traffic, queues, bureaucrats, or taking out health, legal, motor and travel insurance? All these are necessary but hardly fun, let alone something people love doing.
I think your recommendations are hopelessly unrealistic, you completely ignore the positive sides of goals, and you seem to confuse goal-setting with slavish obsession with outcomes. It is not necessary to be an unhappy, performance-obsessed workaholic to benefit from goals.
Ghost of Cutten talks some sense OR because he has seen the bottom OR because he must have seen many see the bottom.
His points are very very very much correct.
Ironplates : at the end of the day, it is your life. And, it is best not to have to look back to it , and die full of regrets when one realises they had just one life ... and it was wasted ... for what ? fill in the blanks.
If you need help, visit a place where people are actually dieing and listen well
His points are very very very much correct.
Ironplates : at the end of the day, it is your life. And, it is best not to have to look back to it , and die full of regrets when one realises they had just one life ... and it was wasted ... for what ? fill in the blanks.
If you need help, visit a place where people are actually dieing and listen well
"Deming addresses goals in the tenth of his 14 Points: âEliminate numerical goals for the work force (and for management) ...
As Deming said: "A numerical goal without a method is nonsense."
Targets and Numerical Goals : http://www.rwwilson.com/art50.shtml
"What are some examples of when setting hard target goals were helpful and some examples of when they were not?"
As Deming said: "A numerical goal without a method is nonsense."
Targets and Numerical Goals : http://www.rwwilson.com/art50.shtml
"What are some examples of when setting hard target goals were helpful and some examples of when they were not?"
I think it depends.
On "human performance development", I think it is absolutely necessary,.
On business goals, I think it should be based on past performance - aka within 75% of mean of past data samples.
On research goals ( here we are talking creativity), numerical goals can be counterproductive, specifically when soft aspects ( quality, new idea,...) are key.
On "human performance development", I think it is absolutely necessary,.
On business goals, I think it should be based on past performance - aka within 75% of mean of past data samples.
On research goals ( here we are talking creativity), numerical goals can be counterproductive, specifically when soft aspects ( quality, new idea,...) are key.
Working without goals is just like working without any target while trading in the forex market and the adds are that we may lose out a good winning position. Thus, its always good and very much beneficial for the traders to have clear goals and realistic target so that they can achieve great heights in their trading career and also in life.