Then what?

So, if goals don’t motivate me because they are so distant and intangible, then how am I going to make these changes in my life?

That’s something I’ve asked myself for ages. If I depend on motivation, then I’m going to fail, and building discipline requires, well, discipline. However I’m going to do it, it has be to be fun, easy to keep up with, and make sense to me.

I have a plan, and it’s based around three core ideas:

• Experiment
• Gameify
• Romanticize

I am a sucker for pretty things, and dreaming big, games give regular checks and feedback that I crave, and experiments are low-pressure. Failure is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged, because failure is how you learn!

Each of these three guide posts focus on the day to day, on incremental change without clear defined outcomes. I’ll write a post on each of these in turn, dive into them, but for now, suffice to say that it’s about changing how you view your life.

Will I still have goals?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, while goals don’t work for me as a tool of motivation in and of themselves, having a goal, or at least a target, helps me know where I want to go and provides a guide post for getting there. Without a goal, how do I know if I’m making progress? How will I know if I’m advancing? How do I keep from stagnating?

Goals, for me, are wants. If they aren’t something I really want, then I’m not going to do it. Goals help to vocalise the want, to solidify it into something that progress can be made towards.

Goals are the ‘I Want’ song of life. They tell others, and yourself, about who you truly are. They may not always be what you need, but life isn’t just about needs.