Goals Make Life Interesting and Reduce Stress: Part 1

by John Townsend ~ March 25th, 2009. Tags: Filed under: Personal Development, Stress Management.

Imagine that you are flying in a Jumbo Jet which is 600 kilometres east of Sydney and 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. The flight is going very smoothly and the cabin crew have just finished serving lunch. You settle back in your seat to take a nap when the Captain’s voice comes over the intercom:

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Phillip Brown the Chief Pilot on Qantas Flight QF17. We have now reached our cruising altitude of 30,000 feet and we are travelling across the ground at airspeed of 530 knots.

In a few moments the co-pilot, navigator and myself will be leaving you. Passengers seated on the right hand side of the aircraft will get an excellent view of our parachutes as we descend.

We’ve set the aircraft on Automatic Control and it will continue on its present course until all the fuel is exhausted. It will then just drop out of the sky wherever it happens to be.

This is a non-destination flight, so have an enjoyable trip.”

How would you feel after that announcement? What would you lose at the end of the flight? It goes without saying that you would lose your life. (You’d probably lose your lunch before that.)

No one in their right mind would get on a non-destination flight. Yet most Australians are content to suffer boring, routine lifestyles that are going nowhere. Wasted minutes turn into wasted days and eventually wasted years. The inevitable outcome is a wasted life.



Goals make life interesting.

The common factor in all sports is that the competitors work towards specific goals.

Supporters would abandon football in droves if the rules were changed to eliminate goals.

Imagine a game where the coach said: “Just go out and kick the ball around a bit and generally have a good time.”  The game would then be pointless.

Remove the goals and the game becomes pointless

We all enjoy having our knowledge tested. Some enterprising Canadians have made an absolute fortune by adding a goal dimension to a general knowledge quiz. The game Trivial Pursuit is fun because the participants answer questions to score points and eventually to get their coloured markers back to the centre position on the board. The goal adds an exciting new element to the game.

Life can be stressful without direction and purpose.  I invite you to read all of my posts on Goals Make Life Interesting and Reduce Stress.

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3 Responses to Goals Make Life Interesting and Reduce Stress: Part 1

  1. Wan Hussin W.M.A.
    March 29th, 2009 at 1:42 am

    Dear Mr. John,

    enjoyed reading your article but would be more real with another example rather than a flying trip to nowhere.

    thanks

    wan hussin wma

  2. Robert Kreisler
    April 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    Excellent advice, particularly for those people who have an innate need to be a perfectionist. It’s hard enough operating without goals, it’s even more difficult when you’ve no goals and you want it to be 100% perfect too. That’s a receipe for disaster.

    Good advice, looking forward to reading more. Thanks.

  3. Elena
    May 12th, 2010 at 7:29 am

    Hello! Great point! I can’t agree more. Without goals, our lives would be totally boring and meaningless.
    Everyone needs to have something to accomplish in their life: whether it’s having a great family, interesting career, adventerous trip, doing missionary work etc.
    If you have a great goal to accomplish and you have passion for it, you brain will release endomorphins that will make you happy, thus you will be less affected by stress.
    I enjoyed reading your article and will come back for more information. Have a wonderful day!
    http://www.happy-healthy-successful.com