Why Achieving Your Goal Should Not Be the Most Important Thing Everyone has the will to win. It's having the will to prepare to win and enjoying it that is much more important.
By David Meltzer Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
How do you set and achieve a goal, but detach from the outcome at the same time? Most people find this idea very conflictual.
There is often talk among sports coaches about winners. They are talking about kids who don't allow themselves or their teams to lose. Some coaches call that a will to win. I don't. I agree with once legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight who believes that this way of thinking puts the emphasis in the wrong place. Everybody has the will to win. What's far more important is having the will to prepare to win and, I would add, enjoying it.
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What do you want and how do you get it?
What does it take to achieve our goals or win? Do we have to attach ourselves to a specific outcome in order to achieve it, or is the enjoyment of the pursuit of that potential enough?
If you want to achieve your goals, start by setting your mind to what you want. For example, many people share the goal of wanting to be a professional athlete. If you want to achieve it, prioritize it in your life. Detach from that outcome and use your desire to aid in building the skills and knowledge necessary to attract success into your life. If you want to be a professional athlete, you must focus in on it every day. Commit to a minimum amount of time each day so that your body, mind and soul are all working in unison.
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How do you achieve your potential?
The game of golf is a great example of this principle. If I want to be a scratch golfer, I am much better off practicing a minimum of 30 minutes per day, which is three-and-a-half hours a week, than playing once a week for five hours or more. My body and my muscles develop memory and become more effective, efficient and statistically successful by practicing every day. My mind creates neuropathways that do the exact same thing for the way that I think. Taking action every day towards a goal will align our body, mind, soul and the universe, allowing things to come to us rapidly.
How can you detach?
While it may seem like it, having goals and detaching from an outcome are not in conflict with one another. We often put artificial expectations like time and specific amounts on our goals, so it seems impossible to set a goal and detach from its outcome at the same time. The universe is exact, and when we put exact requests on that universe we are putting arbitrary and capricious conditions on our intention.
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For example, if we want to make a million dollars this year, that is a great goal, but it's so arbitrary. Why only a million dollars, and why do I have to wait a year? I need to think about the reasons why I want the million dollars. What impact will that have on my life? What capabilities do I need, want or have to have in order to achieve this goal? Those are the things you need to focus in on. This will allow you to enjoy the pursuit of your potential. This allows the universe to bring us what we desire rapidly and accurately. It allows the universe to bring things to us in the right way at the perfect time.
Trust the universe.
Trusting the universe is what detaching from the outcome really means. We should not put conditions on what we want. We want them to come to us in the right way, at the perfect time. We need to trust the universe because the universe is exact. It works efficiently, effectively and statistically successfully, allowing us to do the same. Set your goals and detach from their outcome in order to enjoy the pursuit of your potential.
