Growth Without Goals

Metadata

• Author: [[joincolossus.com]]
• Full Title: Growth Without Goals
• Category: #articles
• URL: https://www.joincolossus.com/blog/posts/growth-without-goals

Highlights

• Inventing the future is another way of saying “setting goals.” Success, especially in the West, then becomes about achieving those goals. We accumulate accomplishments and call it success. Success means something very different to me, and I think being a great father will be about effectively communicating this different definition of success to my kids. Success is about building a set of daily practices, it is about growth without goals. Continuous, habitual practice(s) trumps achievement-based success.
  • Tags: [[goals]] [[growth]] [[success]]
• Now I just want to explore. That may mean blog posts, research papers, new investing strategies, letters, podcasts, long periods of nothing, or maybe another book. Who knows? Exploration is continuous, there is no end point. Focusing on exploration is very rewarding all the time. It may produce things that look like end points, like achievements, but those things are just byproducts.
• The last one—level up—is my favorite. To be able to put a check mark next to “level up,” I have to do something that day which is new or better than what I have done before. I recorded an interview with a really interesting author and investor the other day. Level up. I ran a new trail in the woods that I’d never explored before. Level up. I sent my wife flowers and a note. Level up. This simple reminder has proved invaluable.
• It is in these woods that I’ve begun to teach my son (and will soon teach my daughter) this lesson: explore for the sake of exploration, without expectation. Discover essence in your surroundings and in yourself, free from external conditioning (stories) and expectations. Build from the inside out and bottom up. Great habits and practices make a great and successful life. Cultivate those and the rest will take care of itself.