Many years ago, I read ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ by Robert Pirsig. At the time I didn’t know anything about Zen or Motorcycle Maintenance and at the end of reading the book, I still didn’t know anything. I recall very little of the book now, except that it was a road trip between a father and his son. One thing, though, stuck in my mind for years afterwards. It was the kernel of an idea that subsequently had a profound influence upon me.

As I recall, at one point in the book, the main protagonist, Pirsig, visits an old friend who has married. The wife doesn’t know Pirsig and asks him what he does for a living. Pirsig explains that he does technical writing in the form of assembly instruction manuals for barbecues and other self-assembly contraptions. She asks him if she finds the work satisfying and he responds that although he can write the instruction manuals easily, he feels that an important aspect of the job is never done.

He elaborates to say that one of the problems for people who buy a machine and want to assemble it is that they have never done it before and so there is a lot to learn and a lot of processes to go through carefully. Unfortunately, most people want instant results and so when the job proves difficult, such people are likely to get frustrated and angry, finding the whole process unpleasant and perhaps never completing the device. He found that instruction manuals, like many informational books, focused only on the process for getting things done and said nothing about the attitude needed to get things done. His idea (and this is about as Zen as the whole book got for me) was that the instruction manual should begin with a statement along the lines of, ‘Before starting, clear your mind.’

Over the years, I spent a lot of time and effort into developing new knowledge and skills all with the idea that somehow it would create a better life for me. I was good at getting things done in private but when I tried to do things in the public arena I struggled against myself continuously. In private, I didn’t care about results; I just enjoyed the process of doing things and by default I got excellent results but I failed to manage that when I wanted to get public results.

It’s true that I had some limiting beliefs and low self-esteem but on reflection, the biggest problem I had was that I had such a massive focus on ‘getting a result.’ The problem with that, is that it sets up a high-expectation and if the end result is too far away, the route unclear and uncertain or the goal too fantastic, then I found myself in rebellion against myself. Far-reaching, pinnacle goal-setting designs difficulty into the process of getting things done. It actually increases the likelihood of failure because it creates a struggle within the mind as it seeks to do good but continually fails to get the desired result - not necessarily because a person is no good, but simply because the desired result is so far away - with the net result of feeling bad a lot of the time. In my case, the result was massive frustration, massive procrastination, self-sabotage and depression.

All of that knowledge and skill that I spent decades developing was almost useless because I could rarely apply it in meaningful ways and certainly never on a consistent basis. I did badly because I had such a crappy attitude. My life seemed impossible to live and I struggled interminably against myself in an effort to get things done. It felt tragic because I had so much potential and yet there I was, just spinning my wheels.

From time to time, I kept coming back to Pirsig’s idea of having the correct set of attitude before commencing difficult things and I analyzed very deeply and took careful note of my responses when I attempted to do something and yet ended up struggling. It was tough to make a breakthrough because I was so deluded and in denial about my life and my abilities, but I finally realized that I struggled because I always wanted the impossible, not the absolutely impossible, but impossible for me to fulfill at the instant of wanting it.

Too much focus on getting results can be paralyzing because we can so rarely immediately get the result at the point of desiring it and that instantly sets us up to feel bad. Alternatively, a focus on carrying out a process from moment-to-moment with little desire other than to make progress on that immediate item of action is liberating, invigorating and highly-productive.

We spend all of our life living in the moment and so doing the best that we can with that moment is the way to live a life of true satisfaction. If you are struggling to get a result right now, then forget that end result in this moment. Clear your mind of that end result and replace it by focusing intently, yet playfully, upon that part of the process to getting the end result that you are working on now. Do that well, live that moment well and enjoy doing it. That’s the best way to live every moment.

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Pinnacle Goal-Setting Doesn’t Work

The Journey

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