When you spend time in the blogosphere, you hear a lot of talk about goals: personal goals, professional goals, finance goals, development goals, creative goals, short-term goals, long-term goals, etc. (Sometimes it can be exhausting just reading about them all!)
And if you’re a blogger, you’ll inevitably be asked to talk about your own goals. The question often comes up during interviews, and should be a snap to answer, right? Err, not for me.
You see, I’ve never been good at long-term planning – I don’t really like to outline (or even know) where I’m going to be one, five, or ten years from now. Accordingly, I’ve always been reluctant to define, write down, or consciously work toward a set of prescribed goals.
I was chatting about this with my husband the other day, while we were on one of our countryside walks. Over the last year, we’ve been marveling at the ever-changing panorama of wildflowers, and every time we go out, we look forward to what new beauty awaits us. We’ve been treated to bluebells, Queen Anne’s lace, poppies, thistles, wild roses, sowbread, and fields full of blooms we’ll never identify. No one plants them, fertilizes them, waters them, or otherwise cultivates them – they just spring forth, wild, ungroomed, and spontaneous, surprising and delighting us.
I like to think of my goals the same way: popping up like wildflowers, changing with the seasons, dazzling me with their spontaneity and variety.
Sometimes my goal is to finish writing a book, sometimes it’s keeping up with my blog, sometimes it’s learning key phrases in Italian, Hungarian, or Japanese. Sometimes my goals are easy (cook an edible dinner), sometimes they’re challenging (perfect a certain yoga pose), and sometimes they’re ridiculously farfetched (interest Oprah in minimalist living). They vary from day to day, week to week, month to month. Sometimes I have a whole bouquet of goals, and sometimes I don’t have any at all.
With that in mind, here’s my short guide to having wildflower goals:
1. Give them fertile ground. Keep an open mind, stimulate your intellect, interact with interesting people, and take advantage of interesting opportunities. For optimum growth, expose your goals to as much water and sunlight (in the form of other people’s opinions, ideas, and feedback) as possible.
2. Keep an eye out for new varieties. Sometimes we’re so focused on certain goals, we neglect to notice, or nurture, new ones that arise. Regularly survey your landscape, and don’t let those promising new buds escape your attention.
3. Let them surprise and delight you. Leave room for new and unexpected goals in between the ones you’ve “planted.” Learning to paint or play a musical instrument may spring up spontaneously among your more “serious” goals – instead of dismissing them as frivolous, embrace them as a wonderful new flowering of your interests.
4. Let them grow on their own. Don’t feel compelled to tend to your goals every minute of every day. The hardy ones will survive just fine on their own, ready for you to pick and pursue them when the time is right.
5. Let them change with the seasons. Instead of rigidly defining your goals, allow them to develop more fluidly. Goals you set last year may no longer be as relevant or desirable to you now – instead of forcing them to bloom, let them go to seed. Embrace new ones that arise in their place.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t set goals – they’re a fabulous way to help you stay focused and motivated. Rather, I’m saying that you shouldn’t feel compelled to clip, manicure, and overly tend to them. They should be a source of joy and self-discovery, rather than stress or frustration.
How does this relate to minimalist living? Well, when we’re loaded down with stuff, and wrapped up in consumer pursuits, we tend to have tunnel vision. We plod along in a straight line, and pay little attention to what’s going on at the periphery. We concentrate on the goals we set forth last year (or many years ago), and rarely stop for re-evaluation.
Minimalist living eliminates the distractions – the clutter, the chores, the debt – that devour our time and energy. When we’re not slaves to our to-do lists, we have the freedom to relax, wander about, and explore new possibilities.
So let your mental garden grow wild once in a while – you may be surprised what springs forth!
When you spend time in the blogosphere, you hear a lot of talk about goals: personal goals, professional goals, finance goals, development goals, creative goals, short-term goals, long-term goals, etc. (Sometimes it can be exhausting just reading about them all!)
And if you’re a blogger, you’ll inevitably be asked to talk about your own goals. The question often comes up during interviews, and should be a snap to answer, right? Err, not for me.
You see, I’ve never been good at long-term planning – I don’t really like to outline (or even know) where I’m going to be one, five, or ten years from now. Accordingly, I’ve always been reluctant to define, write down, or consciously work toward a set of prescribed goals.
I was chatting about this with my husband the other day, while we were on one of our countryside walks. Over the last year, we’ve been marveling at the ever-changing panorama of wildflowers, and every time we go out, we look forward to what new beauty awaits us. We’ve been treated to bluebells, Queen Anne’s lace, poppies, thistles, wild roses, sowbread, and fields full of blooms we’ll never identify. No one plants them, fertilizes them, waters them, or otherwise cultivates them – they just spring forth, wild, ungroomed, and spontaneous, surprising and delighting us.
I like to think of my goals the same way: popping up like wildflowers, changing with the seasons, dazzling me with their spontaneity and variety.
Sometimes my goal is to finish writing a book, sometimes it’s keeping up with my blog, sometimes it’s learning key phrases in Spanish, Hungarian, or Japanese. Sometimes my goals are easy (cook an edible dinner), sometimes they’re challenging (perfect a certain yoga pose), and sometimes they’re ridiculously farfetched (interest Oprah in minimalist living). They vary from day to day, week to week, month to month. Sometimes I have a whole bouquet of goals, and sometimes I don’t have any at all.
With that in mind, here’s my short guide to having wildflower goals:
1. Give them fertile ground. Keep an open mind, stimulate your intellect, interact with interesting people, and take advantage of interesting opportunities. For optimum growth, expose your goals to as much water and sunlight (in the form of other people’s opinions, ideas, and feedback) as possible.
2. Keep an eye out for new varieties. Sometimes we’re so focused on certain goals, we neglect to notice, or nurture, new ones that arise. Regularly survey your landscape, and don’t let those promising new buds escape your attention.
3. Let them surprise and delight you. Leave room for new and unexpected goals in between the ones you’ve “planted.” Learning to paint or play a musical instrument may spring up spontaneously among your more “serious” goals – instead of dismissing them as frivolous, embrace them as a wonderful new flowering of your interests.
4. Let them grow on their own. Don’t feel compelled to tend to your goals every minute of every day. The hardy ones will survive just fine on their own, ready for you to pick and pursue them when the time is right.
5. Let them change with the seasons. Instead of rigidly defining your goals, allow them to develop more fluidly. Goals you set last year may no longer be as relevant or desirable to you now – instead of forcing them to bloom, let them go to seed. Embrace new ones that arise in their place.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t set goals – they’re a fabulous way to help you stay focused and motivated. Rather, I’m saying that you shouldn’t feel compelled to clip, manicure, and overly tend to them. They should be a source of joy and self-discovery, rather than stress or frustration.
Let your mental garden grow wild once in a while. You’ll feel more relaxed and serene, and may be surprised what springs forth!
{If you’d like to read more about minimalist living, please consider buying my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Great post! For a long time, I got frustrated because I started things without finishing them, but then I realized that I left some thing unfinished because they were no longer important to me, but I still work at the things that matter.
I love this. I have always had a big guilt trip about not having defined goals. This post feels like such a release, and a validation of my natural proclivities. Thank you.
I just want to let you know how much I’m enjoying your blog. I discovered it a couple of weeks ago (google search for “minimal wardrobe”) and it’s one of the few blogs where I’ve gone back and read the entire archive. I love the combination of the spiritual/philosophical and the practical. You’ve definitely inspired me to pare down! Thank you.
great post! My friends have always had goals and mine were always changing – kinda like the wind. Going in one direction than in another direction the next. Thanks for your input!
Thank you for articulating what I can’t.
My overarching goal is to create an environment in which I can be open to new experiences (and goals!) as they come up.
I think McKella has a good point. Sometimes you don’t finish them because they are no longer important. I recently pulled out my sewing projects. On top (like always) were two dresses that I have been working on for about two years. It goes something like this: I realize the darts are wrong, pull it apart, sew it back together and then realize the problem was the zipper was put in wonky. My husband suggested I throw/give them away. It seemed crazy since I had put all this time into these projects but he was right! I kept working on them because I felt I had to!
My “to do” list keeps getting smaller and smaller. I used to keep a list of a million things I wanted to do. Most were wants and very few were things I actually needed to do. (similar to spending money, how much of what we buy is want and how much is need?) It took a lot of pressure off of me when I realized I didn’t always have to be achieving some sort of goal. I’m still ambitious but my projects now have more substance. I even give myself permission to mark items off my list if I’m no longer interested.
A very thought provoking post. While I was still working my 9-5 job, my main goal was early retirement and traveling in my RV. That was all I worked on. I accomplished that in 2009 but the traveling only lasted 2 months when I had to travel to where my Mom lives and take care of her. Now my goals are more fluid. They come and they go and are fun while they last.
Hi I just want to say that I really like reading your blog, you seem very cool and down to earth, I’ve been to some minimalist blogs and there seems to be an air of elitist attitudes among popular minimalist bloggers today. You don’t seem to have that about you and that’s why I really enjoy your blog. Minimalism isn’t a competition and its not about being better than someone else, just want to say to keep up the good work. =)
This was a lovely read, Francine. Your mention of walking through ever-changing wildflowers reminded me of England and how much I miss it. It’s such a walkable place, isn’t it?
Your analogy is spot on. Same thing happens around here in the uncluttered spaces, so much more room for fresh surprises :)
I like to look away from time to time and as you wrote, “Let them surprise”. I also feel that I am in a different season and long term goals are not the best for me anymore. Thank you for writing about this! Also–wildflowers are my favorite! We do get some here in the Southwest in the spring.
I love your “wildflower” view of yourself. I have always thought of myself as rather flighty. Determined, capable, stubborn and willing to get things done, but still flighty. I get bored. I want to try new things. I like to let things happen as they will instead of overplanning or forcing things. I am a creative soul. I like to explore. I don’t always have a long term goal, but I always have a plan, and sometimes plans change. Wildflowers. Thanks for this wonderful new way of looking at myself!!!!
Thank you. What a relief! I wrote down some goals six months ago, and then left them alone. I have moved forward in two areas that were at the top of my list at the time. This just happened, sort of. The rest haven’t moved forward at all and that’s OK. What a relief to be given permission to let things go to seed if that’s the way it goes. The rest will bloom as they should.
What a beautiful post! You’ve filled it with the most lovely imagery.
I liked reading: “Of course, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t set goals – they’re a fabulous way to help you stay focused and motivated. Rather, I’m saying that you shouldn’t feel compelled to clip, manicure, and overly tend to them. They should be a source of joy and self-discovery, rather than stress or frustration.”
Thank you.
I love wildflowers. Thanks for the great analogy and the stress-free approach to goals and goal-setting.
Fascinating. As with many of your readers I’m on the journey that is minimalism, with the slightly different situation that I looked around myself in the middle of a large renovation to my house and wondered WTF I was *doing* this for. I pondered when I had been happiest in my life and that time was, of course, in my 20s when I lived in a 1-bedroom apartment with a shelf of books, a bed, a chair and small table. And outdoor equipment, of course, for cycling, running kayaking and LIVING. These days, 30 years later, I own a lot of “stuff” in a construction zone of a house and my bikes have flat tires and haven’t been used in years. So now the renovation has taken a more minimalist “get it finished” tack, I’m solving the problem of clutter with craigslist, goodwill and the like. And I’m also (you hoped I’d get to a point that related to your post) back to transitory goals. I blew off the “normal” summer vacation flying to the east visiting friends and doing much as I’ve done before to stay home and plan my 5-week vacation in New Zealand where I’ll meet new people and have new experiences. And many of the unmet goals for the renovation are in the virtual trash now. Life is too short to be owned by your house. Or other physical crap.
Love this! My goal is to approach life in this way..
I love this post, and it reminds me a lot of Leo’s shift on Zen Habits – when I first started reading his blog there was a lot about productivity and focusing on achieving your goals, but now it’s much more about discovering what you feel passionate about and committing to that.
I used to be forever setting goals and then feeling terrible because I never achieve them. I’m changing, and realising that when I’m procrastinating it’s almost always because I’m making myself do things I really can’t be bothered with. Sometimes I have no choice but to do a horrible task, but often I’m just trying to push through to completion on something non-essential – it may have been important to me at one point, but not any more.
My goals have changed recently. I still want to get rid of more things, but there are some personal goals I need to work on. I came upon this piece at a good time.
I still need to downsize and I still need to keep sorting. there is still so much I don’t want or need around me. At some future time, I’d like a smaller space with less furniture.
Oh wow! I’m not alone. When I was 28 a friend said to me I was running out of time. Time for what? She never did say what it was. For a while after that I was so distressed that I wasn’t fulfilling some way of life and some set of goals that I was expected to follow (but someone forgot to tell me what the rules were). Eight years ago I made a cross country move back to live near family. Several months after I arrived back in my home state a cousin asked me what I was going to do for work. I replied that God only knows. She was so upset by that answer. But I felt free. I have grown more comfortable over the years in the unknown, the untried, the undone, and living mostly goal-less. (There I have finally said it out loud.) Though I have become more comfortable living this way, I still found myself playing the game with family that somehow my way of living and being was not worthy, and by their standards, certainly not acceptable. Thank you for helping me to accept that all is well in my world, and my way of living. I love living lighter and being free to be me.
I have been giving presentations on living with less money. The last one I did was on crafts. The next is on gardening. Every year, people throw out plants in the fall and buy new ones in spring instead of keeping them indoors over the winter.