This past week I viewed a film on Netflix titled “The Alpinist” featuring 23-year-old solo free-climber Marc-Andre Leclerc. I was on the edge of my seat as I watched the young Canadian climber overcome massive obstacles as he attempted to ascend famous peaks by himself without any harnesses or safety gear. Towards the end of the film, as he is being interviewed, he talked about how achieving the goal often left him feeling “let down”. Summitting the peak never quite lived up to his expectations. What he learned was that the journey was much more satisfying and fulfilling than the actual achievement of the goal.
The natural question for me as I consider his comments is “can you have success without setting goals?” If reaching the goal leaves you feeling “let down”, do you need to set goals as a prerequisite of success?
Early in my career I had the good fortune to work for a company founded by personal development pioneer Paul J Meyer. His definition of success was the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile, personal goals. He was a vigorous proponent of the importance of setting goals in all areas of life. He understood that goals were individual destinations on the map of your life and the journey towards them created that euphoric state referred to as success.
Here are 3 truths about goals and their impact on our lives based on my own experience and my observation of many others.
- If you aim for nothing, you’re bound to hit it. People who resist setting goals often claim that they are just going to do their very best and that doing that doesn’t require goals. The problem is lack of clarity which means lack of focus and attention. We often learn much more when we miss our goals than when we achieve them. Without goals, the learning would not be as concise.
- It’s easier to choose goals than it is to choose the journey of a lifetime. It is often easier to identify our journey in the rearview mirror. One of the benefits of setting goals is that it keeps us learning and striving, often unaware of the bigger picture and the greater path. You would be ill advised to wait until you knew what you wanted to be when you grow up before you ever start working at something.
- If you are not growing, you are dying. Setting goals requires us to grow because we are attempting something new. To get a new result, you must take new action, which means you need to think in new and different ways. All of this keeps us growing and evolving. Without goals you risk stagnancy.
I believe setting goals and working towards them moves us towards being the best version of ourselves. We are happier and more fulfilled when we lose ourselves in the pursuit of a personal and meaningful objective that requires us to stretch and grow. It may be true that the actual achievement of some goals doesn’t leave us feeling as we might have expected. That just may be nature’s way of reminding us to move on to setting the next goal.