E8. We Have a Societal Addiction to Goal Setting and It's Draining Our Joy

Is it possible to have goals without goals? In this episode, I delve deeper into what I see as the incompatibility between the goal setting, achievement-oriented paradigm and living life experimentally. I discuss the origins of the goal setting paradigm, what it's actually useful for, and why it will never result in personal happiness for us creative, intuitive types (hint: it's just not the right tool for the job). You'll hear about the trick goal setting plays on us, how I differentiate between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and the two words I use to help me visualize how to live a more experimental-style life. This episode rounds out the three-episode arc on living life experimentally - I hope you've enjoyed it and found it useful!

You can find this episode's accompanying blog post here.

The Harvard Business School paper on goal setting that I cite can be found here.