We all have goals, right? That’s what going further means, although it’s not always the right way to think about becoming your best you.
Last year, we discussed the dark side of goal setting. Research shows that pursuing clearly defined goals sometimes motivates people to lie, cheat, and otherwise engage in short-term thinking to overcome obstacles.
That’s the problem of focusing on results over process. In other words, allowing your ego to strive for becoming instead of doing.
For example, in the arena of fitness, we say we want to lose 20 pounds instead of focusing on the day-to-day mechanisms of eating well and exercising regularly. That’s the difference between an outcome goal and a behavioral goal.
And what is a behavioral goal anyway? It’s the desire to develop a beneficial habit that sticks. Developing the habit is what’s key, because it’s beneficial whether you achieve the exact outcome or not, and means you’ll maintain the outcome you do achieve.
Last week, Shane Parrish pointed out that the distinction between habits and goals is not semantic, because each requires different forms of action.
His examples:
- We want to learn a new language. We could decide we want to be fluent in 6 months (goal), or we could commit to 30-minutes of practice each day (habit).
- We want to read more books. We could set the goal to read 50 books by the end of the year, or we could decide to always carry one (habit).
- We want to spend more time with family. We could plan to spend 7 hours a week with family (goal), or we could choose to eat dinner with them each night (habit).
There’s a reason why the heading of the Further About page is happiness is a way of travel, not a destination. Living your best life is all about what you do on your journey, not where you ultimately arrive.
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
further: resources
Sleep Well
Although sleep is a topic with lots of gray areas, the ill effects from not getting a decent set of zzz’s are totally black-and-white — think overeating, heart disease, and even brain tissue loss.
Five Tips for Getting Really Good Sleep
Do You Even Lift?
Modern exercise science shows that working with weights—whether that weight is a light dumbbell or your own body—may be the best exercise for lifelong physical function and fitness.
Why Weight Training Is Ridiculously Good For You
Bench Blast
All you really need to blast your triceps is your own bodyweight and a bench. You’ll do 3 bodyweight tricep motions in this circuit, which can be done anywhere that you can find a bench or similar raised surface.
The Bodyweight Triceps Crusher You Can Do Anywhere
Santa Barbara Skies
Nicknamed the American Riviera (no joke), Santa Barbara shares the chic, endless-summer vibe of its French counterpart — think swoon-worthy spas, boho-chic resorts, and world-class dining — with the added benefit of a full-blown holistic health scene that’s attracting a different type of jet set.
How to Have the Perfect Healthy Day in Santa Barbara
Travel Trumps Terror
“When people have traveled to destinations where they have initially been nervous of going to and they haven’t encountered anything adverse, they come back correspondingly more relaxed about traveling again in the future.”
How to Ease Travel Anxiety in an Era of Terror: Travel More
Product People
Developing you own product line might be a smart move, and it’s never been more doable. Here’s how to get started on that before dinnertime tonight.
How (And Why) To Launch Your Own Product Line, No Startup Required
No Job, No Worries?
It’s no secret that technology is threatening to take away jobs. The counterbalance to technological unemployment is that pretty much everything we need and do in our day-to-day lives is becoming radically cheaper, if not free, and technology’s making it happen.
Technology Will Erase Jobs — But Also Make Everything Cheap or Free
Useful Fiction
When I teach people how to craft a marketing strategy, I tell them to treat it as a work of fiction that’s based on real-world research. Here’s why: “Writing a story requires the ability to see the world from another person’s point of view. This means starting with the senses: what a character sees, hears, feels, smells, and tastes, all of which are likely to reveal her emotions and her unique way of seeing the world.”
Grateful Head
Many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. Even those who were seeking mental health counseling.
How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain
Affirmative, Dave. I Read You
Australian scientists have built an artificial intelligence system that can predict whether or not you will die soon by looking at images of your organs. So, if the AIs don’t kill you directly, they’ll still ruin your day at some point.
When Will You Die? An AI Can Tell by Just Looking at Images of Your Organs
further: sharing
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