Making an Impact

My theme for 2006 is “impact.” It makes me feel incredible when I receive emails, like this one…

FINALLY!

Stephen,

Thank you so much. I could never put my finger on it, but the high pressure of all the goal setting made me anxious, and I felt like I was missing the boat half the time.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars on life coaches to help me reach goals prematurely which only stressed me out. Turns out, I was right on track all along, and just needed to enjoy the journey.

Goal free, stress free! This is not to say that I don’t have dreams I work toward. Of course I do. But now, I enjoy the process and don’t put unnecessary and counter-productive pressure on myself.

I can’t express how much lighter I feel after reading just a little bit of your book! It was like you were speaking right to me.

So, will I reach my goals? I don’t know. But I do know I’ll keep growing and enjoy the unique journey that is….my life.

I could just hug you!

Thank you, thank you.

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Three Cheers for Change

I recently received an email with the subject line, “Three Cheers for Change.” It is the story of Erin McElvaney, and her interpretation of Goal-Free Living, based on her own experiences. For Erin, it means leading a life of adventure. For now, that is her compass setting. I predict that through her travels and new experiences, she will find something that really gets her jazzed up — something unpredictable — that will become her new compass setting. Something that will become a full-time entrepreneurial endeavor. Goal-Free Living is about playing full out in the game of life. What is the game you want to play?

By age 23, I was the poster child for “success” in the eyes of my family and friends. I had a great job at a leading technology company, where I had been working for a little over a year as a software engineer. I was making more money that 99% of the people in my graduating classes. In order to get there, I worked my butt off for years through college, maintaining 4.0′s and honors and taking internships and jobs all year round. I felt locked into my lifestyle. I *had* to take that job or *had* to apply for the *best* positions.

But work was not inspiring. None of my colleagues were happy. They worked 50+ hours a week and didn’t have much going on outside work. Morale was awful. The company didn’t care about us as employees. And you would be hard pressed to hear an interesting conversation on the whole campus of 10,000+ employees. After seeing how crummy full-time employment in a big tech company can be, I started to make some REAL changes…and I quit my job.

You should have seen their faces when I left. My boss assumed I had another job lined up. But I didn’t, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. In fact, what I had lined up was what I called “QUITFEST 2005″ — a string of celebrations and travels to commemorate the fact that I stuck through that job for a whole year.

I bought a one-way ticket to Europe – without a destination. I found out where I’d fly into on the day of my flight. I spent two months traveling Europe, mostly by myself. I started work on my own website that relates to travel. I’d love to help others plan their own trips abroad. Or help them NOT plan their trips. If you have too many goals in your travels, you miss out on some of the best parts –the adventures, mishaps, and meanderings.

Two months later I flew home for the holidays and have been working part time jobs doing marketing promotions. I am so happy to have social interaction in a job for once! I work as a photographer and promoter every weekend a few nights for an entertainment guide website. I also worked at a restaurant for the first time in my life. I loved it! I met some wonderful people who live amazingly real and happy lives, without all the stresses and goals of the people I spent so much time around in college and in my other job.

I am so excited about my present and my future nowadays. Years ago I was always looking for that future. It was as if I was planning for retirement before I even began my career! Now that I’m through my initial life-altering change, I’m looking forward to years more ahead of me. My daily activities have gone from “sitting at my desk, hating my pointless work, accumulating money in the bank because I have no vacation time to enjoy myself with” — to – “looking for odd jobs to help pay the bills, learning some Italian and planning my next adventure, after which I’ll be out interacting with strangers and meeting new people.”

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Business Plans = Bankruptcy?

I recently received the following email…

I appreciated your blog entry on goal-free business. My experience with start-ups has taught me that it is the journey, because the destination isn’t always what you originally intended. The first start-up company I was with managed to sell for profit in the midst of the telco bust (we were a telco). Why were we able to to this? Because we adapted and managed to do it fast–this involved a major change to our business plan. We had our hands in the business as well as on the business. I feel this balance kept us from having tunnel vision.

The president of the second company I was with wrote an excellent business plan. It looked great on paper and he proceeded to execute his plan without examining how it was impacting the business. He didn’t understand why things didn’t work out they way they were supposed to. Within 8 months, the company went bankrupt.

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