Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 8 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: States of being
— From The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman
When setting goals, it’s important to differentiate an achievement from a State of Being. When we say I want to be happy, or I want to feel excited, or I want to be successful, we are referring to the way in which we’d like to feel as a result of the achievements, but those are not the achievements per se.
According to Josh Kaufman author of The Personal MBA, “A State of Being is a quality of your present experience. Emotional experiences aren’t achievements because they fluctuate over time—you can be happy right now and upset an hour from now. Accordingly, ‘being happy’ is not an achievement—it’s a quality of your present experience.”
While it’s great to want to be happy and successful, and we should all aim for that, it’s best to see states of being as “decision criteria—ways of understanding whether or not your actions are leading to your desired results.”
When you break down the states of being into their components (whatever those components are for you) then you can determine whether what you are doing is yielding the desired results. For instance, Kaufman says, “I define ‘being successful’ as ‘working on things I enjoy with people I like,’ ‘feeling free to choose what I work on,’ and ‘having enough money to live without financial stress.’ Together, these States of Being provide a much more useful definition of success—if that’s how I’m experiencing the world, I’m ‘successful.’ ”
He goes on to explain what it means to him to be happy: “A combination of ‘having fun,’ ‘spending time with people I enjoy,’ ‘feeling calm,’ and ‘feeling free.’ When those States of Being describe my experience in the present moment, I’m ‘happy.’ ”
There you have it. Figure out what decision criteria you can evaluate your achievements under, and you’ll be able to determine whether you are reaching your desired states of being.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of a state of being you want to experience today. Then break it down into the components that are important to you and set periodic times throughout your day for checking in with yourself and determine whether what you are doing is helping you reach that particular state of being.
FUTURE: Figure out the many states of being you want to experience in your life. Break them down into their components and figure out what actions you need to take to reach them. Set your goals accordingly.
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