Posts tagged Goals

Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long run. It’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfilment.

Therefore goals are never an end in itself. Many people lack a sense of fulfilment when achieving goals, because the role goals play, is distorted to something it was never meant to be. This is why many people abandon the whole discipline of setting and achieving goals, denying them one of the most powerful tools to achieve real success when used correctly

Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.