thank you. i've been trying to verbalise that jim coudal quote for years, this is the first time i've heard it said like that.
On 4 August 2016 at 07:01, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > This reminds me of the Gaiman quote: "...the price of getting what you > want, is getting what you once wanted.” > > I'm not too hot on specific goals myself - instead opting for mission > statements like "be surrounded by interesting people". How about you folks? > > Udhay > > https://m.signalvnoise.com/ive-never-had-a-goal-c89219aedddf > > I’ve never had a goal. > > I can’t remember having a goal. An actual goal. > > There are things I’ve wanted to do, but if I didn’t do them I’d be fine > with that too. There are targets that would have been nice to hit, but if I > didn’t hit them I wouldn’t look back and say I missed them. > > I don’t aim for things that way. > > I do things, I try things, I build things, I want to make progress, I want > to make things better for me, my company, my family, my neighborhood, etc. > But I’ve never set a goal. It’s just not how I approach things. > > A goal is something that goes away when you hit it. Once you’ve reached it, > it’s gone. You could always set another one, but I just don’t function in > steps like that. > When you shift from 1st to 2nd, 1st is behind you. Then from 2nd to 3rd, > 2nd is behind you. I approach things continuously, not in stops. I just > want to keep going?—?whatever happens along the way is just what happens. > > I consider Basecamp, my current business, as one continuous line back from > when I sold the first thing I ever remember making?—?a logo for $50 (which > happened to be for Andrei Heramischuk— who knew!). I was 16 or something > like that at the time. I didn’t have a goal to make two logos, or to be > able to charge $5000 for a logo. I just made logos. And then I made > software. And then I made web sites. And now I make software again. No > goals in the process that I remember. > > I just worked at whatever I was working on and ended up wherever I am. I > continue to approach work and life that same way today. > > If I’ve used the word goal, I didn’t mean it that way. It was just the word > I picked, a synonym for something else. > > I really like what Jim Coudal said about goals: > “The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our > goals not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them, but we set > our goals for the person we are when we set them. > > That pretty much sums it up for me. > > -- > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) >
