The Goal-Setter's 4-Category Framework for Achieving Fulfillment
Hone your journey to fulfillment by understanding four types of goals:
Hygienic Goals: Achieving these goals isn't a big deal, but not achieving them brings a lot of unhappiness. Picture your basics, like staying fit, mental health, or having enough money for bills. They aren't success markers, but if you miss these, you'll definitely feel it.
Instrumental Goals: These goals are necessary steps in the journey, and dangerous if seen as destinations. Think of power and wealth: they're not the finish lines but more like a bicycle — they help you get to where you want. They're concrete objectives, helpful in fulfilling others.
End Goals: These are your personal dreams that you can chase and fulfill directly, like making meditation a daily routine or painting every weekend. They're desires that can be directly acted upon, even if you first need to create some instrumental tools (time, energy, motivation etc.)
Consequential Goals: Imagine wanting inner peace or to be recognized as an accomplished artist. You can't reach these big goals directly - there's no concrete action to aim for. They're like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that comes from pursuing end and instrumental goals.
Here's a neat concept from John Kay's "Obliquity" — you often get to the best stuff by taking the scenic route. You need room to grow, learn, and adjust to reach consequential goals, leading to more enduring results.
Messing up goal types can leave you spinning your wheels, wasting time and energy. So stop overfocusing on instrumental goals that don't bring fulfillment or trying to reach consequential goals with no way to get there.