You don't actually want to achieve your goals

And what you really want instead

I stumbled across a Reddit post from a multi-millionaire the other day.

He “made a small killing in stocks.”

He quit his job.

He retired early.

He started living the dream.

He was miserable.

Here’s what he said:

You think you want to summit the mountain.

What you really want is to go on a journey.

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First, some nuance.

Yes, money is good. Yes, financial freedom is good. Yes, if you’re broke, making a lot of money will make your life easier and you will be happier.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’ve written online for long enough to know that people are going to scream about this if I don’t acknowledge it.

Cool. Now that that’s done …

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In their book, “The Courage to Be Disliked,” authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga talks about lesser-known psychological approach called “Adlerian Psychology.”

The book takes place as a conversation between a philosopher and a young person.

Here’s an excerpt (emphasis mine):

Most of us have goals in life.

And we assume that what we want is to achieve those goals. But the achieving of a goal is meaningless. The only part that has meaning — the only part that’s going to give you the satisfaction you’re aiming for — is the journey on your pursuit of that goal.

Think about is this way:

Your goal is to summit Mount Everest.

Someone tells you they have a helicopter that can take you to the summit (yes, I know it’s not possible. Stop making me acknowledge obvious things).

If you take that helicopter ride, are you going to be satisfied? Happy? Accomplished?

Of course not. Because there was no effort, no failure, no work.

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Back to our Early Retirement Guy.

He summited the mountain. And to be sure, it seems like he earned it. It seems like he put the effort in, developed a skill, and spent wisely so he could hang up his cleats on his own terms.

And then he got to the top of the mountain.

And they joy was nowhere to be found.

You and I were designed to find value and meaning in struggle, in effort, in overcoming obstacles.

We’re often told to set big, crazy, audacious goals in life. We’re trained to think that once we reach those goals, we’ll be happy. But the goals themselves don’t bring satisfaction. Summiting the mountain is nice for the moment, but if you try to live on the top, you’ll find that the satisfaction you were searching for was all a result of the journey, and not a result of the outcome.

You think you want to summit the mountain.

What you really want is to go on a journey.