Roads not goals - Jo VanEvery

I hate goals.

I don’t find them motivating at all.

If setting goals works for you, go ahead. You are in good company at this time of year.

But if goals just make you panic about not achieving them and being a failure, I give you permission not to set any.

I don’t care if you write an article this term. Or if anything that you do in your 15-minutes a day can be published.

Are you on the road you want to be on?

road in wood cc — Photo from wildxplorer

Forget about the destination. You’ll notice you can’t even see the destination in that photo. But doesn’t it look like an inviting road?

Some things that might be on your road

intellectual stimulation
time to think big thoughts
interesting books
stuff you want to dig into in detail

That stuff might be historical documents, interviews with breadwinning moms, climate change politics, the writings of Plato, or any number of other things.

What are the things that define your road?

Write them down.

Be as detailed as you like. Include things you aren’t getting right now but you want to be on your road. (Share your description of your road in the comments if you want.)

Now that you know what the road you want to be on looks like, you can think about things you can do that will keep you on that road.

You don’t have to be going anywhere. You can just amble along slowly looking at the scenery. Really looking.

Can you find time to take a stroll down that road?

What would that look like?

Make more notes if you like. Share them, too, if you want.

If you’re worried about setting an intention to stroll down the road every day and then feeling like a failure because you can’t even take this tiny step, then step back.