Look, I get it. The goal means a lot to you. It would be incredibly fun to be there already. The finish line. The salary. The new house. The successful business. The million followers.
Goals are important. They give us a destination and a direction to follow.
But goals alone aren’t enough.
You have to learn to love the work that gets you there.
Imagine this:
You’re planning a trip from NYC to Los Angeles.
Your goal?
You want to experience the country between these two big cities. You want to eat local foods, meet people in different cities and states, and take several weeks off to do it.
How do you get there?
You could fly. A flight takes about six hours and boom — you’re in LA.
The goal is technically achieved.
But is that really what you wanted? Was the goal to be in LA, or was it to drive across the country to get there?
If instead you rented an RV, bought maps, researched routes and roadside motels, found diners and scenic stops, maybe planned to visit friends and family on the way — that’s what you really meant when you said you wanted to “go to LA.”
The destination was just a placeholder. You could have just as easily picked San Francisco or San Diego.
It was never about getting there. It was about what you’d experience along the way.
This is how we treat goals in our everyday life. We fixate on the destination and ignore the journey — even though the growth, the insight, the connection, and the life is in the journey.
You have to settle in for the long haul.
You have to be okay with the days you log 400 miles and the days you stay put in a small town because you love the vibe.
You have to be okay with roadblocks and detours and bad weather.
You also have to be ready for the smooth stretches — the easy days where everything works.
If your goal is to have a top-rated Substack — that’s awesome!
But who will you become on your way there?
How many words will you write?
How many posts will you send into silence?
How many days will you feel stuck, and how many will the words pour out of you?
How often will you feel the frustration of slow growth, and how electric will it feel when one new subscriber finds you and stays?
How will your life shift as a result of just trying?
Will you:
Read more?
Surround yourself with others who are building and dreaming too?
Say goodbye to cynics who never take risks?
Learn to trust your instincts — even when the doubt creeps in?
Send bold messages to people you once looked up to, and then hear back from them?
That’s the real joy of a goal.
Not the goal. The you that shows up on the way there.
It’s taken me a lifetime to figure this out. But once I started to love the work I was doing, it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders.
I started to have fun.
I loved writing again.
I loved posting.
I felt proud when a single comment rolled in. I smiled when someone new followed my Substack or found me on TikTok.
Not even six months ago, I couldn’t imagine recording a video podcast — and now I do it weekly. I was die-hard audio-only. I was too embarrassed. My video setup didn’t look “pro.” I didn’t have a fancy studio.
But I hit a point where I thought — forget it. Hit record.
And I only did that because I let myself love the moment.
I stopped waiting to be “ready,” and instead I loved who I became just by trying.
So let me ask you:
What’s your goal?
And be honest — are you working toward it, or are you just hoping to be teleported there?
Do you want the outcome?
Or do you want the growth, the confidence, and the change that comes along the way?
Once you start to separate the two, your life will change.
And ironically, once you stop chasing the goal for the goal’s sake, you’ll actually get closer to it.
