The target-driven life
The industrial era ushered in the age of targets. Never before in the history of mankind has life been driven by targets as it is now. We have targets for everything these days. There are production targets, sales targets, bottom-line targets, growth targets, and success targets. The student has a target of getting a certain number of marks in the examination. The tax department of the government has revenue collection targets. The businessman has a target of entering the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest. The sportsman has the target of winning the maximum number of matches. Targets are either meeting deadlines, achieving numbers, or beating the competition.
Like many other things in life, targets can spurt us into growth. But it can also create enormous stress. A target-driven life can become a stress-ridden life unless it is properly managed. It can imbalance our lives. The target can become an obsession, the end- all and be-all of life, the sole purpose of existence. Targets can consume us and take away our freedom. Life is then lived for the target. The target becomes an end in itself, not a means to a higher end. It takes center stage in our lives. It is then not just a number to be achieved. The target defines who we are. Our identity is invested in it. Anything that happens to that target affects our self-image. When the target takes a beating so does our self-image, of who we think we are. In our powerful inner need to maintain our self-image, we have to meet the target. If the self-image is the driving force behind the target, our lives are going to be a roller coaster ride. Some arbitrary number is going to run our lives. Life will become a numbers game.
Without targets, there would be no stress. But there would also be no directed growth. Targets give us direction. Otherwise, we will drift aimlessly. Life will lack focus. There will be nothing to look forward to. One of the essential things required for a happy life is having something to look forward to. We cannot live only in the now. We need to bring a part of the future into the now. Targets bring the future into the present. We then work for the future, in the present. The future needs to be defined with precision. What better way than to make it into a number? Mathematics is the most precise science after all.
But we need to take targets a step further. Plans and targets cannot be just in business. It has to be expanded to all areas of life. It is useful to bring some of the best business practices into our personal life. We need to have emotional targets, relationship targets, happiness targets, stress reduction targets, communication targets, spiritual targets, health targets, awareness targets. Since we work best with numbers we need to put a number on these targets. We can assign a scale to them and move up the scale one notch at a time. The number you give on the scale is entirely subjective. For example we can say that our verbal communication skills at present is at number four. We can then target moving up to number five within a comfortable time zone. After the specified period we can decide on the number we have achieved. We can do the same with happiness. Happiness is not something that will descend from somewhere. It has to be worked upon like everything else. Unless we make it into a project, we will achieve little. For personal targets, we can give ourselves some additional time and not rush. But if you give yourself too much time the mind will postpone and procrastinate forever.
Targets and timelines go together. Targets are not a real challenge for anyone. All of us can achieve any target if there is no time limit. It is the time element that causes stress. We live in a world that is in a hurry. Everything should have been done yesterday. In such a world stress will follow us like a shadow. A leisurely life with time for contemplation, long slow walks and lengthy conversations seem to belong to a bygone era. We seem to be racing against time. But for what reason? To reach a destination. Our entire culture is geared towards speed. The fastest reaches the finishing line first. What would happen if you slowed down? You will lose the race and be left behind. For it to work, everyone has to slow down simultaneously. Alternatively you decide that you are not in the race and choose your own pace. You choose targets that give you enough time for activities that you are interested in. This means you go home early every day, have a five day week, and enjoy a holiday for a month every year. Then you can have moderate targets that don’t burn you out early. But you will also earn less and achieve less.
What would life be without any targets? It will be like a ship lost at sea, not knowing where it is headed. Targets give meaning and direction to our lives. The present is generally meaningless unless it is linked to something in the future, whether the future is just a few minutes away or a decade away. Targets are powerful devices. Otherwise, our lazy minds will not activate themselves. It needs something in the future to spur it into action. The present is too small a unit of time to achieve anything. We need a series of present moments spreading in a not too distant future to achieve something worthwhile.
Targets are destinations. We will not be at peace unless we reach the destination. We feel a sense of incompleteness when there is a task left undone or a target not reached. To overcome this feeling of incompleteness, reaching the destination takes priority over everything else. When we reach the destination we feel relieved. It is as though a burden has been lifted from us. This wanting to feel relieved is the reason why we don’t enjoy the process. When we have only the destination in sight we miss the journey. The journey becomes a means to an end, something dispensable, something not important in its own right. A nuisance one tolerates. Given a chance, we would prefer to dispense with the process. If only we could pass the examination without going through the process of studying. If only we could be healthy without the process of exercising. If only we could earn money without the process of working.
We need to shift our attention from the destination, which is in the future, and become aware of the process in the present. Unless we begin to focus on and enjoy the process, the future will dominate our consciousness. The future becomes all- important and the present is at the service of the future. It is not given equal importance. But that was not the intention when the target was set. The future target was meant to serve the present and give it direction. It has now become its master.
But this wanting to feel relief prevents us from enjoying the process in the present. It urges us to finish the task soon to feel relieved. When this urge is strong we do things in a hurry. The destination beckons us, its pull is magnetic. That is why half the time we don’t give our full attention to people because the mind is processing the next thing to do. That is also why we don’t tolerate people who are slow. Speed is a result of wanting to reach the destination fast. We want to reach the future quickly. But why? What is there in the future that is not there in the present? A sense of relief. Relief from what? The process. It is blocking our way to reach the destination quickly.
So how do we restore the rightful place of the present process and not let the future target displace it? By slowing down consciously. By shifting attention again and again to the present process. It is a question of training the attention. The future target will always be there at the back of the mind but it is given attention only when required. We don’t keep measuring our waistline ten times a day. Maybe once a week. The rest of the time we enjoy the workouts. Though we began the workouts to reduce our waistline, we have to free it from its bondage to the target. The process has to have a rightful place in our lives as a joy unto itself without being bound to something else. So is the case with the sales target. The process of making the sale is freed from its target. Sale-making then has a chance of becoming joyful without pressure from the target. You then engage with your customer fully. At the end of the day, you review your targets. So also with spiritual targets. We have to enjoy the meditation instead of constantly measuring how silent our minds have become. That we can do once a month. But it is also important to review the targets periodically. If it is forgotten, the process will slacken. We will become lazy and procrastinate.
Driving a vehicle has become stressful as everyone wants to reach their destination as soon as possible. The joy of driving can be restored if you drive at a steady pace. When you slow down the speed of the vehicle your mind also slows down and becomes calmer. Initially, your mind will resist but gradually you will begin to enjoy it. It will free you from the destination mentality. Those who drive jerkily will have jerky minds. By slowing down any activity we are sending signals to the brain not to be destination-oriented but focus on the process in the present. Our tendency to walk fast, eat fast, drive fast, think fast, speak fast and watch movies that are fast paced all point to a mind that wants to reach the destination ASAP.
We also have this incorrect belief that we can reach the destination faster if we double our efforts in the present. This does not work in all areas of life. By exercising for three hours we will not reduce weight in half the time. Also, it may have other detrimental consequences. We cannot build a skyscraper in one month and become millionaires in one year. Beyond a point the body, mind and spirit will not be able to withstand the pressure. We cannot build character in a week or self-confidence in a fortnight. Knowledge and wisdom take time to seep down into our being. Repetition is required over lengthy periods. We cannot have targets for poetry and art, which are based on inspiration. Targets and destinations don’t apply to such things as wisdom and maturity or honesty and integrity. Either you are honest or dishonest. You cannot become honest gradually. Nobel prize winners are not made in a few years. Constantly thinking of the target can cause impatience and increase irritability. Targets should neither be too easy nor too hard. One will make us laid back and the other stressful and anxious.
We also need to balance our lives with activities that have targets and others that don’t. If our lives are completely target driven the stress levels may be too high to handle. We need to have times that have no component of the future directing and overseeing it. The mind needs to be set free of the future and allowed to roam in the present unfettered. Aimlessness and purposelessness also need to have a small place in our daily lives to counter balance the target-driven life.
Targets need to be realistic. But how do we define realistic? It is highly subjective and our minds can take us for a ride in determining what is realistic. Many targets are not determined based on the resources one has but by the competition. This is the real nightmare. When megalomaniacs who have some crazy dream set targets, millions suffer in the process, working day and night for one man’s ego. That is how kings and dictators operate. But what are we trying to prove by setting such targets? Is it purely to make the ego and self-image feel good? But why do we need to prove anything to anybody? If at all we need to prove anything it should be that we had enough time for everything we wanted to do in life. When the ego drives the target it brings misery to all. The quality of human life is sacrificed for a number and a date.
If the target was achieved then it was not the right target. If the target was not achieved we did not put in our best efforts. Either way, we lose. It is meaningless to set a target that can be achieved only if everyone has to work 20 hours a day. Or a target that can be achieved only by the whiz kids, the top notchers, without considering the average capability of the group. Or a target that is based purely on the competition. But that is what is happening. Nobody seems to be worried about the long working hours and the toll it takes. Would it not be better to set a target that can be achieved by working the optimum number of hours possible in a day, after considering the capability of the group? But in the rat race, we are caught up in if your competitor in China works 18 hours and you don’t, then you will have to close down your business. Unless targets and resources are matched everyone will be stretched beyond their limits.
Human beings were not designed to chase targets. For the better part of our history as hunters, we thought only of our next meal. With agriculture and storage, we thought a year ahead. Today we have monthly plans that stretch ten years into the future. We have to rewire our brains to meet the new ways of modern life. Targets and deadlines are here to stay. Most of them will be set by someone at the top who is a high achiever. Those who don’t meet the targets will have to drop out. Those who do will become the role models, the shining stars.
Targets keep the mind on a tight leash. It forces the mind back into the task at hand. We have to view it as a useful mind management tool, which we take on voluntarily. If we see it as a demon hovering over our heads, our relationship to it will be hostile. Either we discipline ourselves or allow the target to discipline us. Unless you enjoy the process the target will haunt you in your dreams. All we can do is give our best to the process. Despite this, if we don’t meet the target then the target was not meant for us at that point in time. We just have to accept the fact that, at our present level, this is all we can achieve, and then take steps to do better in the future. But there will always be someone else who achieved more than us. That will make us feel bad. When this happens congratulate him for his achievement and learn his secrets and strategies. For that matter, there will always be someone better than us in every area of life. We must feel good about this. Just imagine if each one of us thought that ours was the last word on every subject what the world will come to.
