Goals Don't Always Have to be Productive

by Andreea Prodan
in PERSONAL GROWTH

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Goal setting has been proven to help people become more productive, less stressed and to have a more organised lifestyle. However, a big part of goal setting can become a burden and a flourishing place for perfectionism, workaholism and lack of rest. It has become less and less common to see people have hobbies just for the sake of having a hobby, and not try and turn it into a side hustle, make a profit out of it, in short take the fun out of it and make it something productive, an objective and goal to tick off the to-do list.

In todays world we are almost addicted to productive goals, achieving as much as possible in a day and having a sense of being constantly busy. It feel like an achievement in itself to brag about being so busy lately , and taking time off to enjoy certain activities like cooking and painting can be seen as a waste of time, almost being lazy. This obsession with productivity can be harmful because we become so invested in our goals and the end results, that a lack of intended result can equate experiencing a lack of self, confidence and experiencing feeling of worthiness. This can leave us feeling anxious, stressed and demotivated.

Learning to enjoy the process with curiosity rather than constraint

Goal-setting can help us feel motivated and almost give us a sense of purpose. In order to have more goals that are no constrained by productivity and outcome, we can star by looking at activities that we want to work at, rather than having to. For example, instead of saying that you have to journal every single day, you can set a more gentle and flexible goal of writing. If you have a tendency to write only when bad things are happening then many try and write when you experience some simple joys.

One of my great passions is painting, however I rarely paint as most times I set the goal of creating a piece that I can hang around the house somewhere, to freshen up the look. However this puts a lot of pressure on me creating something “worth hanging on my walls”. Instead a more gentle approach can be to play with creating new colours, experimenting with textures and do abstract painting. This takes the pressure away from the end result.