SUCCESS | REACHING GOALS | MOTIVATION
The Biggest Misconception About Reaching Your Goals
It’s not all about crossing the finish line.
People obsess about results — achieving their goals, getting the highest exam marks, or winning a sports tournament.
I know how it feels — I’ve been one of those people.
Obsessing about results is like running a race. It’s as if your eyes are glued to the finish line instead of ensuring your legs are moving correctly.
You can probably imagine what happens next.
Your legs get tangled up, and you trip.
Likewise, when you obsess too much about results, you don’t focus on the individual steps needed to reach that goal.
And if you don’t focus on the steps, then you might never achieve the results you’re looking for.
Consider reading a book, say something impressive like War and Peace.
It makes no sense to run around telling everybody that you’re going to read War and Peace.
(I don’t think you can read a book just by talking about it…)
You have to open the book, read the words, and turn the pages.
But unfortunately, most of us spend too much time raving about the book and too little time reading it.
The Danger of Goals
When you crave satisfying results, goals can often be a distraction — here’s what I mean.
Naturally, people love instant rewards and gratification. The bursts of dopamine are addictive, and we want them as quickly as possible.
While dopamine bursts are helpful in certain situations, they can be detrimental to our goals, especially long-term goals.
That’s because it takes time to achieve a goal— lots of time.
At first, the progress is slow. It seems like no progress at all.
The problem is that we’re impatient. We crave the dopamine of good results and get frustrated that there isn’t any fast progress early on.
It’s like writing on Medium. At first, you don’t get any tractions. It’s like you’re not even there.
The absence of immediate results gets on your nerves.
So you quit.
But you quit too early — because you were too hung up on the slow progress.
And you forget to notice that slow progress is still progress.
The Right Way to Think About Goals
My advice to you — change your way of thinking about goals.
View goals not as solely a line to cross, but as a series of steps or tasks you have to do.
Then, pour all your focus, energy, and dedication into completing those steps.
Don’t dream about achieving your goals. Take the steps forward, build good habits, and make progress.
Just do it.
Here’s why that works.
When you concentrate on taking steps forward, you’ll clearly see your progress.
You’ll compare yourself to the day before and say, “Wow, I’ve improved!”
Seeing evidence of your progress will be the best motivation for you to keep moving forward.
If instead, you focus only on the goal, you’ll compare yourself to your desired results.
Remember that progress is slow.
As a result, your progress will seem like nothing, and you’ll convince yourself that you’ll never be able to reach the goal.
And we know what happens then.
You quit.
We don’t want that to happen, do we?
To prevent yourself from having such negative thoughts, remind yourself of all the professionals in the world.
The musicians, athletes, presidents, or authors. They’ve practiced for years (if not decades) before they got their results.
So it’s gonna take just as long for you.
Closing Thoughts
We all want to pass our exams, finish a hiking trail, or publish our first book.
However important these goals are, the steps you take to reach those goals are far more important.
They’re the bulk of the journey — the slow and steady.
Never be afraid of the really slow progress. It will always take lots of time.
But thankfully, the progress you make through those steps will build life-changing habits and teach you life-changing lessons.
And maybe eventually, you’ll get the results you’ve been looking for.
Don’t obsess about your desired results — and don’t brag about your ambitions, like reading War and Peace, either.
Work hard and focus on making progress.
Don’t tell people your plans. Show them your results.
