Silverknife - Writing and Productivity: Zen and the Art of Goal-Setting

Image by UniqueO Mania♥ via Flickr

A common, simple interpretation of the Zen ethos is to enjoy the journey, not focus on the destination. To relax and allow yourself to be led by the motions of the universe, rather than charging toward some ending.

But when we are trying to be our most productive and creative, simply allowing ourselves to flow in some natural direction just won't work. There are too many distractions, and it's too easy to be led astray by a thousand displacement activities and the urgings of our nemesis Resistance. At first glance, it seems that Zen and productivity can never coexist in our lives.

But I would argue that setting clear and evident goals may allow us to enjoy the journey even more.

If, as so many people are, we're just working for the sake of working, dealing with each problem as it occurs, buried in the swamp of our tasks and without an aim in sight, we can't see the road ahead. As travellers, we're climbing a mountain with no idea if we're going in the right direction, ready for the possibility that we might have to climb all the way back down again.

Once we have a clear goal, we have a destination, and we know roughly where it is. In a sense, we have a GPS reading for our destination - at any given time, we know which direction we need to be heading in. And while (if we want to achive our goals) we do have to keep moving towards it, we can now enjoy the side-paths, the unexpected discoveries, and sometimes the shortcuts we may come upon on the way, without fearing that we're losing our way. We can set our own pace, and enjoy the journey.