Mark Twain said "Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here." We have goals even as a child; they may be as simple as playing with our favorite toy. But as we grow, our goals get more complex and we end up with far too many of them and too many distractions that prevent us from achieving our goals.
Sometimes we interpret goals more broadly and a better word may be purpose. We search for our true purpose; the purpose may be for ourself or for our community or the company that we work for. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology that defines five types of needs. Starting from the basic physiological and safety needs, one moves on to satisfy the need for belonging and love and of esteem. Finally, one has self-actualization needs that go beyond the psychological needs; they capture our need to achieve our full potential or purpose in life.
Indian scriptures define the four puruṣārtha's - dharma, artha, kama, moksha - as the purpose of human life. Dharma or moral values and righteous living should be the driving force for artha or the acquisition of material wealth. This righteous acquisition of wealth for the benefit of all can then lead to kama or the fulfillment of the psychological needs of love and belonging. Finally, moksha is the ultimate purpose for this human life - to strive for liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth. What is interesting about the puruṣārtha pyramid is that everything is driven by righteous action.
Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy Embedded within the Four Purushartha's (Source: Indic Today)
However, when one reads the Gita we come across this verse.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन | मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि || 2.47 ||
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction (2.47)
A novice reader of Gita on reading this verse may hastily conclude that the text requires one to get on with one's duties, act in a robotic fashion with no passion and no notion of agency. And when the results come, not bother with them and carry on acting. In other words, the natural questions that arise are:
Am I not supposed to have any goals in life?
Am I supposed to act without any passion?
How do I know what my duties are?
Duties and Goals
Gita definitely wants us to set goals in life and plan ways of achieving these goals. It goes even beyond that and tells us where these goals should come from. As this verse states "you have the right to perform your duties". When you want to perform your duties adequately, you have to set the goals and act to achieve these goals.
The four ashrams we looked at earlier gives a framework for us to set our goals.
Brahmacharya: In this phase, as a student, we are urged to gain knowledge, build strength, and serve our elders and teachers. This naturally leads to a set of duties. Performing these duties requires us to set goals, plan, and improve our performance. So there is nothing wrong in a student setting a goal "to be the best student" or "to be the best cricketer or the best baseball player" or "the best musician" in their class or school. However, Gita urges us not to get attached with the goal, to blame others or ourselves if we don't achieve our goals, or to feel proud and arrogant when we do achieve our goals. The above verse shows the way for carrying out our duties, having goals, and acting in a manner that increases the efficiency of our action.
Grihastha: In this phase, as a householder, we are urged to support the family, pursue a career, accumulate wealth, and serve society. Once again, this naturally leads to career goals, duties as a spouse, as a parent, and as an employee.
Vanaprastha: In this phase, as a retiree, we are urged to withdraw from worldly and material activities and focus more on the spiritual life. Even at this stage, one does set goals that are more spiritual in nature.
Sannyasa: In this phase, even as a renunciate one has the ultimate goal of liberation or moksha.
In summary, duties come from the different roles one plays during different stages of one's life. Effectively discharging our duties requires us to formulate goals and plan on how to achieve these goals.
Goals to Actions
Achieving goals requires us to make decisions and perform actions. Chapter 2, Verse 47 describes how to perform these actions. It urges us to focus on doing the action with perfection and not worry about the results of the action while doing it. This leads to efficiency in action. Similarly, it asks us not to 'consider ourselves to be the cause of the results'; this means if the actions lead to 'expected' results then we don't get arrogant with our capabilities. Such arrogance can impede our performance the next time we perform the same action. Similarly, if the actions fall short of our 'expectations' we are more likely to blame ourselves or someone else for the failure. This again can adversely impact our own self-esteem or our relationships with others - not to mention the future success of the actions.
Gita goes even a step further and urges us not to have any expectations about the success or failure of our actions. The verse separates the 'results' from the 'fruits' of the action. The results are objective outcomes from the performance of the action. The results are dependent on not just the action and the capabilities of the performer of the action, but also on all the environmental factors and all the other actors involved. For example, two great tennis players may have prepared their 'best' for a critical match; however, only one of them will win the match. In this case, other actors determine your success, in addition to your own. Similarly, the weather conditions could be favorable to one player and not the other, once again affecting the outcome. In the words of Gita, the outcome of the action is based on the 'laws of nature' - this is the 'result'. Our expectations of this result - that "I should win the match" - is termed the 'fruits' of the action. It cautions us not to have expectations of the results or says that we are 'not entitled to the fruits of our actions.'
How to set Goals?
According to Gita, based on our stage of life and role in life we have a set of duties. From these duties emanate the goals and actions. Often, in our everyday life we have a number of goals and we often struggle balancing and prioritizing these goals. In their book, "The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results", Gary Keller and Jay Papasan offer a number of suggestions on how to determine our goals and also on how to prioritize them.
According to Keller and Papasan our choices are dependent on
Knowledge: All we could know
Action: All we could do
Wealth: All we could have
Clearly, we cannot know it all or do it all or have it all. In such a situation, how do we prioritize what to know, do, and have. They urge us to consider the following:
What's the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
This question can be considered across a number of different dimensions - for our physical health, personal life, key relationships, job, business, finances, and spiritual life. In addition, we should also ask this question across different time frames - our someday goal, five-year goal. one-year goal, monthly goal, weekly goal, daily goal and now goal.
Framing these goals across the different dimensions help us prioritize and bring more clarity to our goals across different time frames. In addition to the prioritization of goals it is also useful to look at how one should specify these goals. The well know SMART framework is a good way to write down your goals
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Relevant
T - Time-bound
According to Keller and Papasan, individuals with written goals are 39.5% more likely to succeed in achieving their goals; and individuals with written goals and weekly accountability are 76.7% more likely to succeed.
Key Takeaways
Plan your goals based on your roles and stage of life
Roles lead to goals and duties
Execute actions efficiently
Results are NOT in your hand
DON’T get attached to the fruits of your actions
Exercise for the week
Apply SMART to two out of the following:
Personal/family life
Career/professional life
Community/social life