So few days back I met an old friend after a long time. We were chatting casually and I can't remember how but a debate started. The debate was gentle in the beginning but it moved towards being fierce and finally concluded by both us of agreeing to disagree.
After the debate was over I came home and thought much about it. Below I have jotted down some points about my understanding and digging bit deep.
The topic of the debate is , "Are people motivated more by the goal or by the process ? or is it subjective ?" to explain it a bit further, do people love the goal so much that they can go through any process to achieve it or people just love a certain process which they follow and in consequence achieve something worthy which wasn't a goal a priori.
Let me begin with the describing first side of the argument i.e goals are more important. We all have heard about people who have climbed highest peaks, people who cross english channels and people who sacrificed their lives while making the first airplane. All these people don't care much about the process they have to go through. Goal is the only thing in their mind and that's what keeps them going. Everytime they are stuck on a problem they remind themselves about the goal and keep moving forward, without caring about extracting happiness from day-to-day activities. Achieving the final goal i.e climbing the mountain is the only thing care about and they can take any pain, any displeasure in the pursuit of it.
Other type of people are who love the process and don't need big goals to do something. It's easier to understand these kind of people. Artists, scientists, sportsmen all love their respective fields. Musicians love to compose, play music, sportmen love to play sports, and scientists love the process of science. They don't want a well described goal such as winning a certain tournament, music award as their primary cause of satisfaction. They care about their day-to-day activities and that makes them happy. They may have short term day-to-day goals but it's not a big goal that is making them work day in day out. In a way you can say that everyday process is the goal for them.
Now anything you do has essentially two parts i.e a goal and a process. Both of these elements are interdependent. I will explain two scenarios where focus on one and not other will lead to undesirable results.
First scenario, where you only care about the goal and not much about the process. Say you are motivated by the goal of making an airplane. You are ready to do anything to make one airplane. You start with full enthusiasm but only if you follow the process properly step by step can you achieve the goal. You will have to love the process to move towards the goal, there is no other way to achieve the goal in the optimum way. You might achieve the goal without loving the process too but that won't be optimum.
Other scenario is that care only about loving the process say making music. Everyday you wake up and first thing you do is to play music. In that case if you don't have a goal like performing with a band, your learning may not be optimum. You will be investing time and effort but you might be learning as much as you can. Once you have a defined goal of performing in front of a big crowd you get new burst of energy and enthusiasm. You start working more carefully, more systematically, putting in more effort and pushing yourself. Without a goal you can be a good music player but a goal always pushes you to become better.
Now which scenario you fit to is entirely up to your personal tastes. I fit the second one and I agree that there can be people who are more motivated by a big goal. I believe that an optimum way to do anything would be to do something that you love and that moves you towards a goal which you would like to achieve. Most of the people these days consider this as the definition of a desirable career. But again the final question of satisfaction remains subjective hence can't be answered by anyone else than you. Some people might be fully satisfied playing in a small band and others won't be satisfied even by achieving a big goal.
The strategy of loving the final goal might distract you from the process and cause lot of frustration if you don't achieve the goal but still you can ever do away with the process. Infact there are some goals which are so big that they can't be achieved in a life time. In those cases it's ok to make progress in incremental steps and love the process. Most of the goals that require strong domain expertise can't be achieved only by motivations towards the goal but more importantly it requires years of dedication and hard work. As Thomas Edison appositely put it, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"
On the other hand loving only the process might cause unhappiness when you reflect back on your life or when someone asks you about your accomplishments. You might feel that you have achieved little less than you could have.
Loving the process not only maximises your happiness, it also gives you a good shot at anything you want to achieve and keeps you focused. Goals may change from time to time, mostly they tend to become bigger and bigger, but the process remains the same. Once you have understood the process, there won't be much difficulty in achieving the goals you care about.
Good luck, all power to you.
After the debate was over I came home and thought much about it. Below I have jotted down some points about my understanding and digging bit deep.
The topic of the debate is , "Are people motivated more by the goal or by the process ? or is it subjective ?" to explain it a bit further, do people love the goal so much that they can go through any process to achieve it or people just love a certain process which they follow and in consequence achieve something worthy which wasn't a goal a priori.
Let me begin with the describing first side of the argument i.e goals are more important. We all have heard about people who have climbed highest peaks, people who cross english channels and people who sacrificed their lives while making the first airplane. All these people don't care much about the process they have to go through. Goal is the only thing in their mind and that's what keeps them going. Everytime they are stuck on a problem they remind themselves about the goal and keep moving forward, without caring about extracting happiness from day-to-day activities. Achieving the final goal i.e climbing the mountain is the only thing care about and they can take any pain, any displeasure in the pursuit of it.
Other type of people are who love the process and don't need big goals to do something. It's easier to understand these kind of people. Artists, scientists, sportsmen all love their respective fields. Musicians love to compose, play music, sportmen love to play sports, and scientists love the process of science. They don't want a well described goal such as winning a certain tournament, music award as their primary cause of satisfaction. They care about their day-to-day activities and that makes them happy. They may have short term day-to-day goals but it's not a big goal that is making them work day in day out. In a way you can say that everyday process is the goal for them.
Now anything you do has essentially two parts i.e a goal and a process. Both of these elements are interdependent. I will explain two scenarios where focus on one and not other will lead to undesirable results.
First scenario, where you only care about the goal and not much about the process. Say you are motivated by the goal of making an airplane. You are ready to do anything to make one airplane. You start with full enthusiasm but only if you follow the process properly step by step can you achieve the goal. You will have to love the process to move towards the goal, there is no other way to achieve the goal in the optimum way. You might achieve the goal without loving the process too but that won't be optimum.
Other scenario is that care only about loving the process say making music. Everyday you wake up and first thing you do is to play music. In that case if you don't have a goal like performing with a band, your learning may not be optimum. You will be investing time and effort but you might be learning as much as you can. Once you have a defined goal of performing in front of a big crowd you get new burst of energy and enthusiasm. You start working more carefully, more systematically, putting in more effort and pushing yourself. Without a goal you can be a good music player but a goal always pushes you to become better.
Now which scenario you fit to is entirely up to your personal tastes. I fit the second one and I agree that there can be people who are more motivated by a big goal. I believe that an optimum way to do anything would be to do something that you love and that moves you towards a goal which you would like to achieve. Most of the people these days consider this as the definition of a desirable career. But again the final question of satisfaction remains subjective hence can't be answered by anyone else than you. Some people might be fully satisfied playing in a small band and others won't be satisfied even by achieving a big goal.
The strategy of loving the final goal might distract you from the process and cause lot of frustration if you don't achieve the goal but still you can ever do away with the process. Infact there are some goals which are so big that they can't be achieved in a life time. In those cases it's ok to make progress in incremental steps and love the process. Most of the goals that require strong domain expertise can't be achieved only by motivations towards the goal but more importantly it requires years of dedication and hard work. As Thomas Edison appositely put it, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"
On the other hand loving only the process might cause unhappiness when you reflect back on your life or when someone asks you about your accomplishments. You might feel that you have achieved little less than you could have.
Loving the process not only maximises your happiness, it also gives you a good shot at anything you want to achieve and keeps you focused. Goals may change from time to time, mostly they tend to become bigger and bigger, but the process remains the same. Once you have understood the process, there won't be much difficulty in achieving the goals you care about.
Good luck, all power to you.
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