achieving with excitement
Ages ago I remember reading something by Leo Babauta about he’d given up goals. Instead he was achieving things with excitement.
when your hair stands on end...YOU'RE EXCITED
I’ve never really made goals. As in, “by 2013 I’ll be married with three kids”. Or, “in six months I will have the corner office”. In part because I’m never that certain about what I want to achieve. But also I’m not motivated that way. Goals seem so rigid and external and require different coloured textas and butcher’s paper and….
Sitting down to write “a list” of defined outcomes for down the track seems so dreary and admin-y.
Sitting down to reflect – or write – on what I want my life to feel like – that’s more like it!
Leo arrived at a similar point and said he gets things done by using excitement to lead him. Once excited, he takes action – he acts on the excitement immediately. Then he shares it (talks about it, tweets it). Then acts again. Keeps the excitement going. Acts a bit more and behold a “goal” is reached. Writing down goals, he says, can make you excited. But it’s only one way. And it’s not what gets you to the goal. Excitement does.
Let me tell you a story.
About six years ago I imagined up a scenario where I’m living in a place up high in trees overlooking the ocean. Hot, coastal, slightly tropical. I felt myself being there and felt myself working from there. Last week I took a look at where I’m living now, up here in the Byron hinterland in a little shed/cottage, and realised I’d landed myself in that scenario – trees, view, hot etc.
That’s how I set my directions. Without realising it. A feeling of excitement guides me to what it is that I actually want to achieve. The excitement attached to the scenario (that sits as a background idea in my head…often for years) ensures I keep heading in that direction.
We naturally respond to excitement. Excitement is our internal trigger to tell us YES. HEAD THERE!! YES, YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK! Excitement is the carrot we need to follow.
I feel my excitement as a tingle. I feel it as a colour image (when I imagine stuff that feels wrong, I see it in my mind’s eye in black and white).
Our challenge is to act on our excitement.
Sarah! I swear sometimes you read my mind! I was just discussing with a friend of mine how I had read about this in The Four Hour Work Week. The idea of saying ‘what will excite me’ instead of ‘what are my goals’. I was going to do a post on it but you beat me to the punch. hahaha not that i have neeeaarly as many followers as you! Thanks for the like-mindedness (is that a word?) and the inspiration xx
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April 8th, 2011 at 9:17 am
There’s no such thing as a new idea…post away! Give it your own spin x
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Fantastic – I live this way and it has always worked for me – great article!
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That’s awesome!! I dont agree with Leo on everything (meat eaters “kill for pleasure..?” Huh?) But I LOVED that post. (Also, look up one on Zen Habits called You’re Already Perfect, thats my favourite. It will make you smile on even the darkest day.)
Spooky that you have dreams of the place you are in now, but at the same time, perfectly synchronicitous.
I USED to make goals. And make them rigid, thinking that was the discipline I needed to succeed. Then life happened… and I learned to laugh at my 21 year old self, who thought she knew it all, and feel happy those goals never happened. I think I am in a better place now through embracing chaos, and going with the flow.
Wonderful words Sarah, and a great reminder! Thank you! xxx
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April 8th, 2011 at 11:18 am
I would like to know how you embrace chaos. The reason I ask is because in an earlier post you mentioned that you enjoy heated debates about theoretical physics late at night with a cup of traditional Chinese. Please tell me your idea of chaos is a little more than spilling a bit of chinese tea on your carpet floor.
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April 9th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Fuck off Jason, seriously. I like heated debates with intelligent people, not internet trolls.
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Love it Sarah, Notice that your perception and frame around the word “goals” is what puts you off, that they’re dreary and admin-y. In contrast “what makes me excited” is an excellent question to get to the same outcome from a different angle, a more kinesthetic approach than an analytical one…
Another great question you might like is:
If I could wave a magic wand and live one perfectly fulfilling day over and over for the rest of my life; what would my ideal day look, feel, sound like? What would I be doing? And with whom? What would I be experiencing?
This question helps you to uncover your true values and what things you really want to experience, rather than just things you want to attain.
Oh, and you may already realise this; you’re in charge of the things that are colour or black and white in your head, if there’s something you need or want to be more excited about, go ahead and colour it in!
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There’s a problem with this idea, though (and I’m practically a “follow your passion” preacher!), and that is that excitement is an emotion. Thus, by definition, it’s temporary. So when excitement fades (as it inevitably will), we’re at risk of leaving once-exciting projects incomplete.
Excitement is a great signal of the direction you want to go, and you should always follow your passion because that’s what we’re here to do — that’s what life is for and about — but I don’t think excitement can or should supplant goals. You need the goals to keep you on target.
For example, I’m about 18 months into a project I thought was going to take me 8 months. I’m dead tired. It’s the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. But when I finish, it will be the most powerful, most rewarding project of my life. If I let excitement steer me, I would’ve quit after about 3 months. I’m not even kidding. And this wonderful project would never have been built.
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April 8th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Hey Jeff, you’re absolutely right.
Excitement is a great indication that you’re going somewhere you want to go, AND inspiration, consistency and long term vision is what sees you through the sometimes tough slog to get to the exciting end point. Keep at it!
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I agree with this 100 percent. Completely. I find that my specific ideas change so abruptly that it’s really not worth setting those kind of expectations in the form of concrete goals. Know what makes me excited? Not knowing what will happen tomorrow. Or the next day. Or in ten years. It’s so inspiring, and I get the feeling like anything can happen. That’s enough motivation for me.
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This is an eye opener for me!
Professionally I would class myself as a Goal Oriented Ambitious Tenacious Achiever Striving for Success or GOAT ASS for short, and for the entirety of my career I have been achieving goals. Maybe it extends from my playing ice hockey all my life or the concussions sustained from doing so, but I have always set goals. In a slightly heated exchange with my beautiful girlfriend she, in a slightly amplified manner, asked me “so what do you want to do with your life?”. Good question, and, I don’t know.
The problem I have is that my goals can polarize other opportunities, the focus on achieving goals, has of late, left me with that quaterlife crisis question of “what am I doing?”. But after reading your post I can begin to see that the things that excite me are actually things I would like in my life and the goals merely provide for that. So my life should look like a happy marriage with kids, the Batmobile (from the 90’s) in the garage, a house based on the Death Star (without the exploding core) and humanity free from suffering.
I get excited by creativity and revelation, things that are not yet created or ideas that have never been thought. I get excited by discovery and insight into things we take for granted and I get excited when I think about sharing my excitement.
If I look back, I acted on excitement once, it’s no mystery that I like sci-fi, so I studied prosthetic makeup (making monsters and aliens) and did some really cool stuff. The industry here in Australia kind of dried up and I ended up doing fashion and beauty makeup and I didn’t really like it. But retrospectively I think it was a good idea and I did enjoy being creative, still do, would you like me to make you into an alien?
This is quite invigorating, it was only last night that I said to my better 2 thirds “I’m going to write 5 songs” that got me excited.
Great post
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Hey Sarah,
I just wanted to share your joy in how great the Byron hinterland is. Its where i grew up and being able to come back to that, come back home, well its just amazing!! How long are you in my gorgeous area for? xx
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Hi Sarah
Thanks to this post i’ve realised, perhaps I have the goal/idea to begin with then just let it flow in whichever direction the excitement happens.
Now I can focus on this and throw away the guilt of the lists that get ignored but in the end really don’t matter.
Not much point in achieving a long term goal if we no longer want it, is there..:-)
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[...] TO DO Sarah Wilson | Achieving With Excitement | Sitting down to reflect – or write – on what I want my life to feel like – that’s more [...]
Thanks Sarah – I do act on my excitement (currently taking a life leap), but I do also have a habit of then becoming paralysed by fear and self doubt. What if I don’t do this right? What if I fail?
I’m working on pushing past these thoughts and letting the excitement guide me
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“Sitting down to reflect – or write – on what I want my life to feel like…”
I’m going to do this right now… thank you for the inspiration Sarah!
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I think ‘goal planning’ and ‘feeling excited’ about something are one of the same, except that it’s up to the individuals interpretation.
Such as, you mentioned about how you imagined the little spot you’re residing in now and that you *felt* it and boom, now you’re exactly where you imagined you wanted to be. That’s the way you set yourself ‘goals’, or things to be excited for. You feel them, you imagine them. For others, they may write down ‘I want to be living in amongst the trees, view etc’. Others may simply create a ‘vision board’ with images of a cottage within the trees and fresh air. It all comes down to the person! I tried the vision board thing for awhile, didn’t work for me, however doing the admin-y writing the goals down AND ‘feeling’ them, imagining them… definitely works, and each time I review them, I get excited for them too!
I think it’s great how people are able to create things for themselves, in their own little ways!
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That’s a bit harsh. Mia, I am interested in what you say. If you like chaos, I’d like to know what you do or what situation you put yourself in to experience it. Do you like chaos in a Doors Of Perception kind of way or something a little more conservative? Sometimes I don’t really know what you are banging on about and would like to know. I don’t want a heated debate by any means but just simple explanation. Cheers.
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April 10th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Your continued requests for more information into my private life are creepy at best. Besides, you tend to try to pick fights a lot, which is just juvenile. This isnt your blog or mine so I really shouldnt have to explain myself to you. Back off.
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April 10th, 2011 at 11:34 am
That’s ridiculous. Why bother posting stuff about yourself and then thinking it’s creepy to ask a question about it. Crazy. Personally I think you won’t answer because you simply don’t know what you are talking about therefore refuse to elaborate. I’m not picking on you Mia. I just find what you write totally bizarre and was wanting to understand it.
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April 10th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
No Jason, she refuses to answer because you come across as offensive with almost every comment you make here. You can disagree with someone without being condescending. Who would respond well to “please tell me your idea of chaos is a little more than spilling a bit of chinese tea on your carpet floor”?
April 10th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Lighten up P. It was a bit of a joke. Do you really think that comment was offensive? Where is the sense of humour? It’s a light hearted, flippant comment. About chinese tea for God’s sake.
April 12th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
I get Jason’s dry humour, that’s all I’ll say.
April 12th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Dude, I FREQUENTLY dont know what I am talking about, that’s hardly a secret. Im on a journey here too, same as anyone, I will readily admit I’m lost in the wilderness quite often. Question is – why do you care so much? It’s not your blog… nor is it mine… why the stalker-like obsession with commenting on EVERYTHING I say?
Fact is, I see you as a sad pathetic person who gets their jollies hassling people annonymously online, so I will never have any respect for you. I wouldn’t talk to you in a pub so why would I debate you here? Anyone else, sure – Sarah Wilson is welcome to ask me anything and everything. But I think you are a dick. So goodbye, I hope.
April 13th, 2011 at 8:32 am
You could not have got it more wrong if you tried.
You obviously think I’m some sad little person who gets their kicks from annoying people on blogs. For your information, I have never in my whole life left a comment on another blog. EVER. Not into it. Could not think of anything more boring than reading some rubbish about what someone is up to. Guess that’s why I don’t have Facebook as well. Anyway, the only reason I came here is because I read something interesting in Sunday Life and came here for more info. Just because I made a couple of cheeky comments, you think I’m a stalker and a dick. Whatever. Mia, I’m not going to leave anymore comments on this blog because this blog obviously means more to you than me. In the future though, don’t be so defensive and dismissive if someone is having a laugh. I didn’t see Adam getting pissed off when I posted a picture of a monkey when he was looking for his Dad. Good on him. Life really isn’t that serious Mia. You know, I would talk to you in a pub because I talk to everyone. I’m not surprised you wouldn’t talk to me as you seem you wouldn’t talk to anyone anyway. Lose the chip on your shoulder and find ways to enjoy yourself.
I wish you all the best..
April 13th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Nooooooo! Don’t bring me into this, I was enjoying reading this back and forth exchange.
I was imagining that this is like that movie “You’ve Got Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan but you guys have the opposite relationship , you have an abrasive online relationship but in real life you see each other every day, maybe on the bus or in a cafe, and you are falling for each other in the offline world (thats what I’ll call it! “Offline”).
You finally meet each other, unaware of the online rage relationship, and sparks fly. In conversation over a romantic meal, one of you realizes that the other is that infuriating person from Sarah Wilson’s blog, but you decide to play along and you begin to have an internal conflict “should I tell them or not?” but you don’t because you’re hiding a bigger secret… You’re a Ninja! And everyone knows that a ninja can’t reveal that hey are one because then a ninja war will break out, but you’re in love, what do you do?
OK? so now, lets improv from there….
[...] Sarah Wilson talks about achieving with excitement. [...]
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