I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get the impression that I’m stuck in a bit of a loop.
Do, plan, do, plan… Finish a piece of writing, move onto the next one. Top your project, move onto the next one. Complete a lesson on your online Spanish course, move onto the next one. Of course, you always want there to be a next one, but it would be nice to be able to savour having finished one thing without looming presence of the next one just inside your peripherals.
We’re a fast-paced and goal-oriented society, but sometimes we forget to stop and think about why we’re setting these goals in the first place. Why do I want to climb to the top of that particular boulder? Why do I want to run from there to there? Why do I want to write this piece? Is it for the sake of progression? Obligation? Enjoyment?
Whoops – that’s a lot of rhetorical questions… I like to think that our goals are motivated by the enjoyment and sense of purpose that we get from putting effort into things and seeing our improvement. It’s nice to feel like you’re being your ‘best self’ (as we millenials say), to explore what you might be capable of when you really try and to feel like you’re moving forwards somehow. We like to put a number on our progress because progress is a hard thing to recognise in ourselves: a boulder always feels easier when you’ve done it so it’s handy to have a grade to tell you that you’re doing okay.
The problem with measuring our progression in this way is that it’s all too easy to forget about the enjoyment part and just think about reaching the next grade, putting a tick in a box or clipping the chains on your project*. That’s when you forget about the journey, and that’s when it becomes a goal for the sake of a goal, progress for the sake of progress. There’s nothing wrong with progress for the sake of progress (no matter what Dolores Umbridge might say), but it’s hardly very fulfilling. In fact it’s almost demotivating; and if you’re not motivated you’re unlikely to put in the effort to improve.
In recent months I’ve focused a little too much on putting a tick in a box rather than enjoying the process. I’ve thought about finishing this article, topping that boulder and speaking fluent Spanish and how great my life will be when I’ve done all those things. I’ve measured progress by a number on a list or a check on the to-do list, and I’ve forgotten to think about the enjoyment I get from the doing the thing in the first place. It’s meant to be fun, after all.
Sometimes it’s fine to tick the boxes. Sometimes it’s necessary. But sometimes it’s worth slowing down and savouring the process of creating something, of unlocking the micro-beta on a problem or of constantly asking your boyfriend how to pronounce Spanish words whilst he’s trying to do work.
Goals give you purpose, but the journey is the main event. So long as we take the time to enjoy it.
– Hati
*Mum, Dad, and others who may not know climbing jargon, ‘clipping the chains on your project’ means ‘getting to the top of/completing your project’.
Hati Whiteley 