There are several different angles from which to attack the paradox I wrote about last week.  In this post, I’m going to focus on a shift in our mentality that can potentially help in finding more satisfaction in our day-to-day lives, minimizing or even eliminating the dreadful work vs. fun conflict that is often so prevalent.

When considering our future, we need to define what exactly we are working towards.  Broad, general goals like ‘having a million dollar net worth’ or ‘retiring at age 45′ are certainly better than failing to set any goals at all, but they are really a means rather than an end.  We need to ask ourselves what it is that we actually want and dig deep to try and figure it out.  If we have no clue as to what the answer is, how could we possibly be sure that the efforts and sacrifices we put forth on a daily basis will satisfy us in the long run?  What if our years of hard work and dedication leave us somewhere we really didn’t want to be in the first place?  It’s much more difficult to thoroughly enjoy the journey when this is the case.

We should narrow our goals down to something more concrete, an example being ‘to retire by age 45 so I can spend much more time with my kids while pursuing my burning passion to create and sell my artwork’.  With a stated goal like that, our desire to achieve will almost certainly increase many times over.  Whether or not our goals change over time is rather irrelevant, as it’s very likely they will.  What matters is that we are pursuing something that gives us a clear sense of focus and direction. 

For the longest while I could work on my business-type projects with the simple motivation of eventually making a fairly sizable income from them.  I’ve recently found that this doesn’t really cut it anymore; I want more specific reasons to justify why I’m willing to invest so much into what I do.  I’m in the process of outlining some particular principles and objectives that I want to shoot for, and I can already tell it’ll have a huge positive effect once I align my day to day work with those long-term goals.

If we have a more certain picture of where we want to go, we are going to find satisfaction working on what matters to us.  We won’t question or dread our actions as long as we make them in accordance with our long-term mindset.  Rather than questioning our efforts, our work should become far more exciting, stimulating, and meaningful.  We are essentially bridging a huge gap between the present and the future, and the journey really does become a much larger part of the fun. 

Check out this link for some expert advice on setting goals with clarity from the blog of Steve Pavlina.

Next week, I’ll once again examine this same topic, this time with finance principles that assist us in meeting our wants and needs both today and tomorrow.

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