Have you ever thought for yourself about the question: “Our goals or the path to reach them – what is more important?”

Did you come to a conclusion?

People like to define themselves through their goals and the things they have achieved in their lives. The outcome seems to be the only desirable value that decides if we are successful or not.

Therefore, the goals determine the end of the path. The outcome that we try to achieve and want to own.

But.

But there is also a path

Why are we so focused on the end and not on the whole path that allows us to reach our desire?

Isn’t the process, that we run through, of the same importance or even more valuable, than the short moment of reaching the goal?

Our paths define the tasks and motivations that we are striving for – every single day. They are the reason that we make progress and evolve ourselves. If our paths are not directed to our goals, we will never reach them.

So. What is more important? Goals or paths?

The balance between goals and paths

Sometimes, we do not really know, whch goals we want to reach in our lives. We have some ideas, but are unsure, if these goals are really the ones that make us happy.

We can go paths, without having concrete goals. Therefore, paths seem to be more of importance for us.

But. Yes, there is a but.

Goals give us a concrete idea, a rough plan and a structure that let us stay focused and align our paths.
They help us to improve and to internalize what we believe will bring joy and value to our lives.

Therefore, the balance between goals and paths is important. First, our goals allow us to determine a rough direction, second, our paths are the daily progress that allows us to reach them.

How to determine goals and paths

To start, we must determine, what are our goals and how can we reach them.

1. What do I want to reach and what is my expected outcome? This is the basis for the next steps. It describes the goal that we try to reach.
   
2. Why do I want to do it? Describe this very detailed. It will help you to stay motivated and see the reason behind your intention.
   
3. What do we have to do, to reach our goals? What are the single important steps that we have to execute. This describes the path and gives us a rough plan to stay focused on the final goal.

These 3 steps are the beginning. We have to recheck them regularly to see, if we are still interested in reaching our defined goals and are still focused to go our chosen paths.

Writing is one of my goals

I also use these 3 steps to define my personal goals.

One of them is writing books and essays.

I determined:

1. Write interesting books (fictional and non-fictional) and essays about simplicity.
   
2. I love stories. It makes me happy to invent fictional worlds, characters and lives to express a story. These are the basis for my fictional writing. Moreover, I am interested in thinking about complex stuff and trying to simplify it. This is the basis for my non-fictional books and essays.
   
3. I have to write. Daily. At least for a few minutes. And I have to recherche about topics that I am interested in. Without this work and routines, there won’t be progress.

This is one of my goals. I really appreciate it.