Goals - Part 6: The Never-Ending Ladder

Well, I suprised myself.  I never thought I would end up with 6 parts to this series of blogs about goals.  Originally I was just going to write one, but I suppose a lot of stuff has been on my mind lately so ... pop goes the weasel...

So far I've done a lot of talking about goals as fixed points in our life.  What I mean by that is that I've been talking about each goal as an end unto itself.  Marathon running, for example.  You have that goal -- but then what?  What does that lead to?  Do you have a goal to accomplish after that?  Or, let's say your goal is to graduate from college.  What happens after that?  Just get a job?

I find that a lot of people, once they reach their "big" goal, find that they're not sure what to do after the fact.  You hear about entrepreneurs who, after they've sold their company for billions of dollars and go to Hawaii to relax on the beach, start to get stir-crazy after a few weeks or months and have this impulse to go start another venture.

I think it comes partially from this human need to challenge ourselves -- to grow and develop as people.

But I also think that this speaks to a deeper issue related to goals.

Achieving one's goals is, for me, not the end of the road.  In fact, it's just a part of the greater process of what we're doing with our lives and who we're working to become.  Goals are like rungs on a ladder that spans the length of our lives.

But thinking of goals in the context of the ladder analogy, we're sort of forced to ask ourselves "Where does the ladder take us?"

I think that this is a question that is different for each of us, and the answers for each person are likewise different.  But, if I may be so bold, I also like to believe that the true answer is actually the same, but we all call it by different names.

What do I mean by that?  Well, let me back up a little bit and explain things a little more step-by-step (pun intended).

Let's say that you want to want to start a habit of running.  So, in order to help yourself do that you decide to give yourself the goal of participating in a marathon a year down the road.  You work hard over the course of the year and even manage a few 10k's and smaller races to help yourself work up to the marathon.

A year later you participate in the race and fulfill that goal.  Afterwards you realize that you hadn't really planned much for your running after that goal so you decide to set a new goal -- to place in the top 15% of runners in the next marathon.  This time you work hard and maybe even find a coach to help you make sure your technique and training protocols are good. 

And then you meet your goal.  You make it in the top 15% of the runners for the marathon.  But now what?  You decide to try to match a time goal for yourself -- you want to run the marathon in less than 3 hours, 30 minutes.

After a while what happens as you continue to create new rungs in your running ladder?  Each step, each progressive goal, gets you closer to ... what?  What are you trying to reach?

A lot of people, when they realize they don't really have the answer to that question, stop trying.  Or, when they realize that they won't become "the best" in their chosen endeavor decide that there is no reason to continue.  But is that really what your goals are about?  Is that why you started running in the first place?

Back when you started this whole process you didn't take up running to become the best runner.  You didn't even start running to meet your first goal of completing a marathon.  In fact, that goal was created in order to support the reason you started running -- not to become the reason itself.  But as we work towards each goal, we start to believe that the goal is the end result, and that it isn't just a rung in the ladder.  Your goal becomes the ladder itself.

So, why did you start running?  Simply put -- it's because you wanted to.  The idea of being a runner appealed to you so you started to create this habit in your life, supported by various goals to push you to improve your ability, but ultimately the habit was created simply because it was something you thought you would enjoy or something you thought you should do.

In the end, if you come to the realization that running isn't a means to and end, but it is the end unto itself, you start to just enjoy the process of running for what it is.  You start to relax into a regular pattern of running just for the sake or running.  Running itself becomes both the journey and the destination.

Putting on the shoes ... doing your light stretching before you hit the road .. relaxing your joints and letting your mind embrace the process of starting your run.  Then the initial difficulties when you hit the road ... followed by the steady pace and rhythm or the run.  Letting your mind wander ... letting the scenery become a part of you.  And escaping into the process and essence of running. 

Running becomes your fortress of solitude -- it becomes the place you escape to and where you find your true self.  And when you come to feel this way about running, the goals of various races and competitions seem to melt away.  This isn't to say you completely ignore them -- they still assist in the process of becoming a better runner -- but for the most part, your practice of running is a goal-less one.

It's this process that many people refer to as the path to Mastery. 

What is Mastery?  In a nutshell, mastery is the never-ending ladder.  It's the journey you embark upon with your running.  One that has no end and is significant simply because it is, in the zen sence, "nothing special".

Mastery can be the ladder for almost everything you do.  Sports, art, music, business, finance, relationships -- you can find the path to mastery, that never-ending ladder filled with rungs of goal-less goals, in just about everything you undertake.  Go back to what I wrote about running and substitute something else in there -- martial arts, volleyball, singing, accounting, sculpting -- you name it.  The path has many vehicles, but the journey is the same regardless.

Even the process of doing something as simple as having breakfast -- it can be a quick process with very little thought put into it, or it can be an opportunity to exercise this process of mastery -- this process of quiet mindfulness and focused detachment. 

Relax your shoulders, open the cereal box and pour the cereal into your bowl.  Watch the bran flakes as they fall like leaves and fill it up.  Carefully close the bag and box and place it back where it came from.  Open the milk and watch as you pour it into the cereal.  Observe the patterns that the splashing makes as it falls into the bowl.  Be mindful of the poetic subtleties inherent in this seemingly mundane, every-day task.  As you use your spoon to scoop up the cereal think about the origins the food too -- from growing in the ground to being cultivated and ground up for the cereal itself -- how each raisin was dried and sweetened.  Each bite you take can be mindful as well.

I'm not saying you need to do this sort of meditative, mindful approach with everything in your life, but with those aspects of your life that you have a great passion for or are part of who you are working to become, it can help center you and give you a sense of perspective and inner peace.

So, how does this all tie in with my original purpose in writing all these Goal blogs?  How does this help me in my own endeavor of developing myself?  I wrote about a bunch of stuff, but to keep these blogs (relatively) brief, I'll save that for the next entry. 

Yeah, I know ... I write a lot.  RenRen asked me if I planned to write a book.  Naw .. not really.  I mean ... writing a book would be cool, but it's not currently a rung on my ladder, if you know what I mean. ;-)  But who knows?  It might end up there ...

But like I said ... I'm saving the next part of this for tomorrow.  I'll get into my own goals and how they related to my personal Mastery Ladders tomorrow ...

(Hmm .. maybe I should copyright the term "Mastery Ladder" ... )