“We can stop waiting for others to give us what we need and take responsibility for ourselves. When we do, the gates to freedom will swing wide. Walk through. “
-Melody Beattie

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Post written by Leo Babauta.

The idea of having concrete, achievable goals seem to be deeply ingrained in our culture. I know I lived with goals for many years, and in fact a big part of my writings here on Zen Habits are about how to set and achieve goals.

These days, however, I live without goals, for the most part. It’s absolutely liberating, and contrary to what you might have been taught, it absolutely doesn’t mean you stop achieving things.

It means you stop letting yourself be limited by goals.

Consider this common belief: “You’ll never get anywhere unless you know where you’re going.” This seems so common sensical, and yet it’s obviously not true if you stop to think about it. Conduct a simple experiment: go outside and walk in a random direction, and feel free to change directions randomly. After 20 minutes, an hour … you’ll be somewhere! It’s just that you didn’t know you were going to end up there.

And there’s the rub: you have to open your mind to going places you never expected to go. If you live without goals, you’ll explore new territory. You’ll learn some unexpected things. You’ll end up in surprising places. That’s the beauty of this philosophy, but it’s also a difficult transition.

Today, I live mostly without goals. Now and then I start coming up with a goal, but I’m letting them go. Living without goals hasn’t ever been an actual goal of mine … it’s just something I’m learning that I enjoy more, that is incredibly freeing, that works with the lifestyle of following my passion that I’ve developed.

The problem with goals

In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps.

Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off.

And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. And goals are too hard to achieve. So now what? Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals!

Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself.

Here’s the secret: the problem isn’t you, it’s the system! Goals as a system are set up for failure.

Even when you do things exactly right, it’s not ideal. Here’s why: you are extremely limited in your actions. When you don’t feel like doing something, you have to force yourself to do it. Your path is chosen, so you don’t have room to explore new territory. You have to follow the plan, even when you’re passionate about something else.

Some goal systems are more flexible, but nothing is as flexible as having no goals.

How it works

So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals.

Continue reading at zenhabits

You may not end today having achieved all your goals, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t moving in the direction of your dreams. If you’ve done something proactive to be who you want to be, you’ve had a successful day.

What seeds can you plant today?

TinyBuddha

Adding last touches to the design of the Leadership with Wisdom: 30 Days Online Personal Leadership Mentoring program. Launch date: August 24th, 2010.

By Robin Sharma, author of the international bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”.


You can really Lead Without a Title.

Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.

Give away what you most wish to receive.

The antidote to stagnation is innovation.

The conversations you are most resisting are the conversations you most need to be having.

Leadership is no longer about position – but passion. It’s no longer about image but impact. This is Leadership 2.0.

The bigger the dream, the more important to the team.

Visionaries see the “impossible” as the inevitable.

All great thinkers are initially ridiculed – and eventually revered.

The more you worry about being applauded by others and making money, the less you’ll focus on doing the great work that will generate applause. And make you money.

To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.

The more messes you allow into your life, the more messes will become a normal (and acceptable) part of your life.

The secret to genius is not genetics but daily practice married with relentless perseverance.

The best leaders lift people up versus tear people down.

The most precious resource for businesspeople is not their time. It’s their energy. Manage it well.

The fears you run from run to you.

The most dangerous place is in your safety zone.

The more you go to your limits, the more your limits will expand.

Every moment in front of a customer is a gorgeous opportunity to live your values.

Be so good at what you do that no one else in the world can do what you do.

You’ll never go wrong in doing what is right.

It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation.

Never leave the site of a strong idea without doing something to execute around it.

A strong foundation at home sets you up for a strong foundation at work.

Never miss a moment to encourage someone you work with.

Saying “I’ll try” really means “I’m not really committed.”

The secret of passion is purpose.

Do a few things at mastery versus many things at mediocrity.

To have the rewards that very few have, do the things that very few people are willing to do.

Go where no one’s gone and leave a trail of excellence behind you.

Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accumulating.

Accept your teammates for what they are and inspire them to become all they can be.

To triple the growth of your organization, triple the growth of your people.

The best leaders are the most dedicated learners. Read great books daily. Investing in your self-development is the best investment you will ever make.

Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.

Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.

Measure your success by your inner scorecard versus an outer one.

Understand the acute difference between the cost of something and the value of something.

Nothing fails like success. Because when you are at the top, it’s so easy to stop doing the very things that brought you to the top.

The best leaders blend courage with compassion.

The less you are like others, the less others will like you.

You’ll never go wrong in doing what’s right.

Excellence in one area is the beginning of excellence in every area.

The real reward for doing your best work is not the money you make but the leader you become.

Passion + production = performance.

The value of getting to your goals lives not in reaching the goal but what the talents/strengths/capabilities the journey reveals to you.

Stand for something. Or else you’ll fall for anything.

Say “thank you” when you’re grateful and “sorry” when you’re wrong.

Make the work you are doing today better than the work you did yesterday.

Small daily – seemingly insignificant – improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time.

Peak performers replace depletion with inspiration on a daily basis.

Take care of your relationships and the sales/money will take care of itself.

You can’t be great if you don’t feel great. Make exceptional health your #1 priority.

Doing the difficult things that you’ve never done awakens the talents you never knew you had.

As we each express our natural genius, we all elevate our world.

Your daily schedule reflects your deepest values.

People do business with people who make them feel special.

All things being equal, the primary competitive advantage of your business will be your ability to grow Leaders Without Titles faster than your industry peers.

Treat people well on your way up and they’ll treat you well on your way down.

Success lies in a masterful consistency around a few fundamentals. It really is simple. Not easy. But simple.

The business (and person) who tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.

One of the primary tactics for enduring winning is daily learning.

To have everything you want, help as many people as you can possibly find get everything they want.

Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (vs. an opportunity).

Clarity precedes mastery. Craft clear and precise plans/goals/deliverables. And then block out all else.

The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure.

Lucky is where skill meets persistence.

The best Leaders Without a Title use their heads and listen to their hearts.

The things that are hardest to do are often the things that are the best to do.

Every single person in the world could be a genius at something, if they practiced it daily for at least ten years (as confirmed by the research of Anders Ericsson and others).

Daily exercise is an insurance policy against future illness. The best Leaders Without Titles are the fittest.

Education is the beginning of transformation. Dedicate yourself to daily learning via books/audios/seminars and coaching.

The quickest way to grow the sales of your business is to grow your people.

Robin Sharma is the bestselling author of “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and Life.”

Life is now. It can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. Why not choose to enjoy it.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Be yourself.