One way to end suffering in the pursuit of goals

xf“The fisherman cannot control the fish, nor the water. He understands that his role is to come to the water, cast his line, then watch and wait.”

— Wu Hsin (Ancient Chinese Sage)

This quote hit me in the goodies this past week during one of the most incredible workshops I’ve ever participated in with a guy named Robert Sheinfeld (more on that soon).

It popped for me because it revealed the simple truth that traditional goal-setting ignores:

We don’t control how the goal arrives or how it will be achieved. We only control our presence and our action (and we don’t even control that well ). 🤣

This, I believe, is why 92% of people never reach their goals: they confuse control with creation, and ignore the very consciousness that defines their goals in the first place.

Goals are just ideas that form out of thoughts and ideas in our consciousness.

We don’t acknowledge this though because we like to believe that we’re somehow influencing this process and that we’re in control.

But if you really look, you’ll see that you don’t really do anything to make these goals appear.

All you do is hear, see or feel an idea appear in your mind and actively choose to pursue it.

If you examine your own experience, you’ll see examples of this happening.

This is natural, and exactly what is supposed to happen.

What most of us do next is the problem.

An idea appears we call a goal, we decide to pursue it, then as we begin to take action, we forget that we “cannot control the fish, nor the water”, and we try to control the fish and the water.

We set up these elaborate systems, lay out the perfect 10 steps it’s going to take and then we review, track and measure our progress all along the way.

As we take the first step, maybe the next step or the third step, something happens.

Consciousness appears again.

A new idea emerges, or something happens in our reality that dismantles our beautifully laid out 10 steps and the direction we thought we were taking to achieve the original idea starts to fall apart.

And what do we do?

We forget (again) that we don’t control the fish or the water and we try to control the fish and the water.

We double down on the system that obviously isn’t working (because it ignores consciousness) and think it must be the way we organized ourselves, right?

We reset and lay out a few more steps and we xfregain a sense of false confidence that NOW we’ve got it all figured out and this time it’ll be different, right?

We reach for a new hack or tool that will help us focus or manipulate our attention, because if we can focus then that will solve all our problems, right?

And repeat the cycle again and again. Never acknowledging the role of consciousness and continuing to try to force and control, creating all kinds of resistance.

We forget that the undercurrent of all goal achievement is more something like this:

1. Experience a thought/idea emerge from consciousness.

2. Identify that thought/idea as a goal.

3. Follow the pure urge that appears to try and achieve that goal.

4. Show up everyday.

5. Take one action at a time without resistance.

6. Experience the transformation of thoughts/ideas that appear through consciousness as you take action.

7. Watch, wait and see what happens.

8. Repeat & cycle through steps 4-7 for as long as it takes

This certainty isn’t the easier way to achieve a goal.

But it sure feels the most natural and least painful or even time consuming.

You don’t need a fancy Excel spreadsheet to control this.

You don’t need a complicated Notion database to manipulate this.

Plain and simple (but not necessarily easier): you just need to remove the resistance from the action.

When you get out of the way and just explore along the path, allowing consciousness to do what it ALWAYS does, the destination that is meant for you in your pursuit will always arrive.

When you act from play, curiosity and creativity, things SLOWLY becomes easier.

Because you aren’t forcing, or putting pressure on what is emerging. You’re simply present to what consciousness is going to do anyway, whether you like it or not.

The mass teachings on goal setting are all based on control, when as you can see, we have none.

Look back on any goal you’ve ever achieved. You’ve never lined it up from step 1 to 10 and hit every step along the way without a change.

Consciousness doesn’t work like that.

When you play by the rules of consciousness, the rules of productivity, performance and goal setting become almost useless.

Don’t get me wrong the systems can work, but if you’re ignoring this fact, you’re always going to suffer.

The truth for me is: I’ve never forced my way into a goal that mattered.

I followed an urge, took a step, and consciousness shaped the path.

The fisherman doesn’t control the fish or the water and neither do we.

Our role is to show up, cast the line, and flow down the river where we’re meant to go.

Much Love,

Cory Firth
Creator of One Minute Weekend

Let’s work together!