How to Feel Good About Your Goals
How to Feel Good About Your Goals
This important distinction could keep you sane.
The Difference Between What is Enough vs. What is Optimal.
If you’re like me and have multiple interests, sometimes it can feel overwhelming trying to manage your time.
You want to reach your goals but don’t feel like you have enough time to pursue everything optimally.
This makes you feel overwhelmed with choices and maybe even burnt out that you don’t have the energy for everything all at once.
Thankfully, this idea of the mind is usually a myth, designed to keep us from actually taking action, which is what’s most important.
What I’ve discovered is the difference between enough and optimal.
To me, optimal means spending your time as effectively as possible to maximize results as quickly as you can.
For example, if you consider lifting weights at the gym, you might try to find the perfect 4-6 day workout split, nutrition, and recovery plan for each week that maximizes your gains in accordance with your genetics.
If you train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you might train 6-7 days a week on top of private lessons, personally tailored workout, recovery, and nutrition plans, and time spent studying instructionals in your free time.
If you’re like most people, you have to deal with the everyday requirements of life, like having a job, doing chores, having a social life, taking care of pets, etc. You can see how trying to adopt this mindset for every one of your hobbies will lead you to feeling burnt out quickly. There simply isn’t enough time and energy.
Which leads me to my preferred mindset.
To me, enough means spending your time efficiently to maximize happiness and still make progress on your goals.
It’s helpful to understand where your priorities lie in terms of your personal goals. This will help you understand how much time to allocate to each of your hobbies/goals. It’s ok to for two things to occupy the same priority space in your list. This just means you will allocate roughly the same amount of time for both.
For example, here’s mine:
1 ) School
2 ) Work (ie. Making Money)
3 ) Lifting Weights
4 ) Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu + Music Production
Here’s how it breaks down in terms of Time/Week:
1 ) School = 5-6 Days = 20-30 Hours
2 ) Work (ie. Making Money) = 3 Days = 22-28 Hours
3 ) Lifting Weights = 2 Full-Body Workouts = 4-5 Hours
4 ) Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu = 1 BJJ Training Session = Around 2 Hours
+
4 ) Music Production = A Few Hours
These are high-level considerations; you could get more in the weeds if you want to, but I’m lazy 🙂
To me, the more something is fulfilling and/or contributing to my long-term well-being, the higher a priority it becomes.
I’ve found that I can do two full-body workouts per week and still improve on my lifts over time. I know if I train BJJ and make some music at least once a week, I will still be improving towards my goals. Plus, I’ll be happy and enjoying myself. Am I going to become a world-class bodybuilder or BJJ competitor? No, but that’s fine, those aren’t my goals. The goal is to be healthy and fulfilled.
Any pressure to “be something” is an unnecessary distraction of the mind, designed to make you feel stuck and guilty for being arbitrarily different than the fantasies of the mind.
Guess what?
This feeling is ultimately bullshit. Pressure and anxiety are completely unnecessary in reaching your goals. And you don’t have to listen to it.
Ultimately, the goal is to invest in myself and feel happy and fulfilled. All that matters is the innate pleasure you receive from taking action towards things that make you feel whole.
What are your goals?
Weekly Music Recommendation:
“Three Drums” by Four Tet
Four Tet will forever be among the greatest in my mind. I could go on and on about his music, but I wanted to recommend “Three Drums” because it really encapsulates what he is all about in a lot of ways. This song is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece of arrangement and production, weaving in and out of new ideas constantly while still keeping you grounded with a simple drum and melody loop. It’s also a feel-good song you can have in the background to study or help focus. Again, if you make music, you can really get inspired by his ability to create amazing arrangements with the simplest of ideas.
Listen to all of the music I have recommended in this Spotify playlist.
This post is from my weekly newsletter: 10-29-2024