Self
In Defense of “Meaningless” Goals
The value of living free of metrics and pursuing things for the sake of it.
Dad and I were driving to the gym and talking about how to solve the world’s problems as usual. He’s an opinionated man with a strong personality, which is unsurprising given his past. He spent 37 years as a Navy SEAL, and traveled to nearly 100 countries in diplomatic roles and saw the world’s many messes. We pivoted into aging and fitness, which is increasingly relevant as I march through my early 40s.
He looked off in thought and casually said, “I wonder if I could get through Hell Week now.” I looked at him and wondered, not for the first time, if he might be crazy. He was grey haired and deep into his 60s, with both hips replaced. Meanwhile, Hell Week includes 5.5 days of constant exercise, shouting, gunfire, cold water, and less than 4 hours of total sleep. The most athletic men in the country are weeded out at this bottleneck. And perhaps this is the difference between people like us and people like him. We do things because we have to. They do things to see if they can.
Grand and voluntary acts, with no objective utility or dollar value can seem so unproductive in this hyper-competitive, KPI-infused corporate world, where everything is drawn out and measured in varying shades of green and red. Our HR director lectured us on making our department goals SMART ( (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, And Time Bound). And so what about the universe of goals that serve no tangible purpose? That make people wonder, “That seems so pointless. Why?”
Extracting value from the arbitrary
Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive, argues that pointless goals trick our minds into pursuing things we love. A goal becomes a self-imposed source of motivation and challenge to our integrity.
When I first began writing, I instantly fell in love with it. I bolted for my keyboard every day after work. During lunch, I said to a fellow finance friend, “My goal is to write three short posts a day for one year.” He turned to me and scrunched his eyes up and said, “Yeah, but why?” Which I understood. I wasn’t being paid. I could have used those hours to relax rather than donate my time. It seemed crazy.
I said, “I don’t know? I just like it.” It was a fun way to stay consistent. It cemented my love for the craft and became a creative outlet. In my own micro-way, I felt closer to the authors I’d admired. Olympus didn’t feel so distant.
Ayelet Fishbach, marketing professor at the University of Chicago, says that arbitrary goals are a form of psychological backup, “When you’re not hitting goals in one realm, like your work, you can still feel a sense of accomplishment and self-efficacy in another, like your shadow life as a bicycling circus performer.”
In the psychology of motivation, there’s a concept called the “locus of control”. It’s the degree to which you believe you have control over your life. It’s a spectrum. At one end, people are hopelessly fatalistic and lose motivation with ease. At the other, people feel their actions drive results and stay motived. The latter is increased by being systematic, and following through on your plans.
When your friend spends his free-time trying to hit new tricks with his yo-yo, he might seem ridiculous. But he’s boosting that locus of control, especially when he sticks to a schedule and plan.
The beauty of creating an inner storyline
Laura and I often hike in the woods when we are in Virginia. Several incredible trails dot the hilly green landscape each spring. Each path is along the infamous 2,190 mile Appalachia trail. As we hike along these rocky paths, we periodically see people who look different from the normal hikers, who are in clean clothes and smiling from a good night of sleep.
With these “special” hikers, their faces are drawn and eyes sunken. They look desperate for a shower — but still determined. They pass us with big backpacks on, staring straight ahead, with muscular calves and legs driving them onward.
Last spring, while it was drizzling rain in a quiet wooded hillside meadow, we chatted with one hiker, a 30-something man with shaggy brown hair who was cheerful despite his disheveled appearance. I asked why he was doing the trail, just as my coworker had asked me of my writing. He smiled and said, “I’ve always wanted to see if I can. I needed some adventure.” I could tell his need for adventure was embedded in some painful broader narrative, some greater need for change.
Even in the most solitary and ostensibly meaningless goal, you create a new storyline and place yourself within it. You invoke a win-fail, hero-villain dynamic within you, just as this man did — putting some old grievance about the new world behind him on this old world trail.
People also forget that meaning is a relative term. If you value endurance and testing yourself, jogging 30 miles is meaningful and worthwhile. If you value doing a backflip for the first time after 40, practicing gymnastics is valuable to you (though caution is strongly advised). If one is taking care of their other priorities in life, who is to question what goal is worth pursuing?
Another perk is that you often achieve a flow-state, which is a proven component of well-being, and occurs when we are lost in a craft or pursuit, losing sense of time, and focusing wholly on the thing in front of us and staying within the moment.
One of the greatest skateboarders of all time, Rodney Mullen, who invented the kickflip and hundreds of other tricks, is now well past his prime and pushing 60. Yet he still skateboards in the wee hours of the night by himself and in absolute anonymity. He doesn’t make money off these sessions nor does he show off his tricks. He does it because it brings him satisfaction. Which brings his exercise full circle. He began this craft as a kid, being told skating was a waste of time and talent. Yet it eventually brought him so much. He skated before that fame and money came, and continues to after — all because he wants to.
Do not fear the arbitrary goal, or judgement from outsiders. If the goal gives you motivation to pursue things you value, do it. Very often, these “meaningless” goals evolve into something much bigger. And then, suddenly, your friends will be asking how they can get started too.
And even if they don’t, wanting to do something is good enough reason for a goal. Meaning is for you to decide, not anybody else.
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