Your Guide to goal setting: A Hybrid Approach

Goals: Mutability and Origin

Your focus has an ephemeral life of a few minutes. Its mutability is necessary for understanding and adapting to different things. The very ability of the mind to understand itself is appreciable and evolved as a very recent part of our cognitive revolution. The hunter-forager could probably sense, hear, and interpret natural stimuli like approaching thunderstorms or a snake in the grass much better than us. He would probably be surprised to hear that the happiness of today's humans lies in holidaying to a completely foreign land or achieving a title at a company; both of the titles and the company are just imagined realities, difficult to embrace for him. There's a lot we have inherited from them, regardless. Our very sense of satisfaction is based on primal instincts.

On the contrary, they never had the time to think about questions like life after five years or even one year for that matter. Daily sacrifices for a better future were probably unknown at that time, and life involved wishing to see the light of the day and hoping a tiger didn't feast while they slept. However, the present generation has the ability and the privilege to think and plan, and we must use it effectively.

The Gita Approach

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Translates to: You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

It means that effort must never be made in pursuit of what it brings, for it is a consequence of your actions, and receiving it is subjective. You may put 150% of your effort into getting something and may not achieve it.

Does this mean, having goals and their pursuit is rendered meaningless? Habit 2 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People tells you to Begin with the end in mind. Naruto had a goal to Be acknowledged and become Hokage, and it was an essential part of his life. So what does the verse 2.47 of the Bhagwad Gita really mean?

Let's take a hypothetical example:

"You are a fresh computer science undergraduate and, since the first year, have a dream to join Google. For years, you reverse-engineered their products, participated in their events, practiced your coding, filled your walls, both of your room and mind, with a repetitive dream. To top it all off, your efforts were acknowledged by someone working there, and you even got a referral. You nailed your interviews, gave your best, and didn't end up getting a job."

So the question is, what is at fault here? Your goal wasn't impossible; it was perfect and made you work hard. Your determination was unquestionably ideal, you toiled hard and got a better average CGPA, Data Structure skills, and Logic. Their hiring process is one of the most refined, and it was also perfect. So, where is the part that makes us depressed about it?

"...prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action."

Along the way, consciously or unconsciously, you programmed yourself into believing that you working hard makes you entitled to the job, and makes you more deserving of it. This is not to say that your effort wasn't enough, but the true essence is: If you have performed your efforts duly, you shall benefit. Having a pole star is perfectly fine, and probably the only way of moving forward, but I quote here a guiding principle of my life:

"Reaching the destination is a really insignificant part of the path you have taken."

I worked really hard towards getting into IITs; most of my notebooks started with only one quote, "AIR 1 JEE Advanced 2016". I studied for 14 hours a day, didn't step out of my room for months, and I didn't end up in an IIT. But I ended up at a very satisfactory place that let me grow in a great peer circle. I ended up having a strong will and ended up graduating with a 9 CGPA.

Strategy:

Having a Goal is the perfect beginning of anything. When you begin with an end in mind, start with a plan, start with a goal, you already are a ship with a destination. So you should work hard towards it and dissociate your emotions from the results and have complete faith in your actions.

Importance of a Goal:

1. It gives you a direction to put your efforts and a reason to wake up every morning.
2. It assures you that giving up something unnecessary today will reward manifold in the future.
3. It gives you the motivation during your worst times, to rise, get back on the saddle, and not succumb to negativity.

How to set a goal:

Here is what works for me:

1. Create a personal mission statement: This is the non-materialistic summary of your life. Big organizations and famous people have had a personal mission statement. Jobs wanted to "Make a ding in the universe," and he did. Gandhi said, "I shall conquer untruth by truth." and he did. I always say that I want to "Leave a good impact on people I meet and at places, I go" and I might (and I invite you to witness and support ^_^). So have a non-materialistic guiding life principle that you can map in any situation.
2. Create a BHAG: A Big Hairy Audacious Goal like getting a JEE Advanced Rank 1, Creating a company or getting into Google. Put your efforts into believing you can do it. I talked of some BHAGs I couldn't achieve, but there are others, that I have completed even looking big from a distance, BHAGs aren't unachievable goals, they are the goals that require you to step out of your comfort zone.
3. Create short goals: Unlike your personal mission statement, which is more or less written in stone and BHAGs that are less likely to change for an extended period, short goals are milestones that you must create for achieving daily wins. Naruto had a BHAG to bring Sasuke back and become Hokage, and as a path, he took goals like mastering the Rasengan. The silver arrow is creating short goals that align and further your pursuit of BHAGs and Mission. They not only give dopamine rushes on completion but also act as milestones towards your journey to BHAGs.
4. Be flexible: Don't stress yourself for not achieving your goal, but don't slack off either. Pick yourself up from scratch and add to it the knowledge of how not to do it from your failure. I didn't fail. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a lightbulb; I only needed to find one way to make it work.

Bottom line:

Please have goals, life statements, and the ability to give 150% every day in its pursuit and dissociate yourself from the result after you have given it your best.

Do you have a personal mission statement? I'd love to watch you accomplish it! Let me know in the comments :)