The Art of Conditionlessness

Why reaching your goals won’t get you what you want

Goals can seem like a good idea. They allow us to focus our attention and channel our energy toward a common direction. They sound innocent enough.

But goals can quickly turn into destinations to get to. And in doing so, they become the conditions for our success.

While a goal-focused approach might work for the small things in life, for the big things it can lead to despair.

For the big things, you have two options. You can either set conditions for success. Or you can adopt conditionlessness.

Small things versus big things

For achieving small and mechanical tasks, conditional goals are effective.

An example: If I want to make a cup of coffee, then my goal is to make a cup of coffee. If I manage to brew it, then pour it, and finally drink it, I have achieved my goal. My conditions for success have been fulfilled. I have been successful in the task that I set out to accomplish. Simple enough.

But with big tasks — with the Big Task itself — it’s a different story.

We say, “as long as I reach X, then I’ll be happy”. We claim that, “as soon as I achieve sales of Y, then everything will be…