Innovation Insights
by Stephen Shapiro
Last month I commissioned an extensive (and statistically valid) survey to study people’s relationship to goals and New Year’s Resolutions. It was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation. The results just arrived in my mailbox today. There are pages and pages
Here is a fishy tale that humorously illustrates why goal-chasing can stop you from enjoying the life you want…now. An American businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman
“One of the secrets of not having a nervous breakdown is not having goals.” — Marshall Field, founder of the large Chicago department store chain
“My only goal is to have no goals. The goal, every time, is that film, that very moment.” — Academy Award-winning director Bernando Bertolucci (“The Last Emperor,” “Last Tango in Paris”)
I was saddened to learn that Paul Winchell passed away June 26th. He is best known as the voice of Tigger on the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. For over six decades, he was a master ventriloquist, brining dummies Jerry Mahoney
I received the following email from a visitor to the website… “I took a Goal Setting course in 1989. I reached one financial goal. Did not reach the others. Since 1989 life often interfered with my goal setting. Many of
I am putting the finishing touches on the manuscript for Goal-Free Living. During the editing process, a lot of material has been left on the cutting room floor. From time to time, I will post some of these materials, starting
A little more than a week ago, I was giving a friend a piggy-back ride. I lost my balance and fell forward on the sidewalk – with the weight of my friend falling on my head. Rather than my hands
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, recently gave a commencement speech at Stanford University. It is the story of his life. He describes why dropping out of college led to the design of the computer interface as we know it
George Will, the well-known conservative columnist, recently addressed the University of Miami class of 2005. In his speech, he discusses the inherent dangers of certitude, and the power accidents. In his Newsweek article about his speech to these graduates, he
“Increasingly, our world consists of destinations and goals, with the times and spaces in between them eliminated by jet propulsion. Consequently, there is little satisfaction in reaching the goal, since a life full of endpoints is like trying to abate
Today I received an interesting email from someone who is a “recovering goalaholic” and is also Danish. He provided some interesting thoughts… “The Danish people are probably the most laid-back in the world. Although overtime pay can be substantial, American
A friend wrote me today with an excerpt from the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho. The main character is a prostitute who makes this observation: “Of course, everyone spoke ill of her profession, but, basically, it was all a
This past weekend I was an attendee in a workshop — a workshop on “how to design experiential workshops”. The first evening we did some very unusual things such as dancing, chanting, and meditating. I struggled to see how these
In addition to goals, there are aspirations. Many people view these as being the same or similar, but they quite different. The origin of the word “goal” comes from the Old English word gal which means obstacle or boundary, and
I attended a conference this weekend. One of the presenters was a top motivational speaker. Her presentation was mainly about how to set and achieve goals. And although I am goal-free, there were several things she said that resonated with
I had an interesting conversation with a woman this morning. She said that she “married” herself a few years ago. The purpose is to continually remind her of her commitment to doing for herself what she would do for a
On February 21st, I posted an email from a woman who wrote me about her “goal-free” story. Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing her via phone. Lynn is 43, a mother of 5, a busy professional, a wife, and
Technology can be a wonderful boon to man-kind. But sometimes we abuse it in ways that prevent us from really participating in life. I recently bought a BlackBerry. My original thinking was that this would free me from my computer
In one of the blog entries, some asked “Mr. Goalfree, I want to ask you, IS your intended book publishing not A GOAL?” This raises a couple of interesting points. First of all, Goal-Free Living does not mean that you
I have had numerous debates as to whether goals are in the genetic make-up of the human DNA, or whether they are learned over time by the subtle (and not so subtle) messages within society. Although I am not, nor
I recently received an email from Salah, a computer engineering student at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. A few months ago he wrote an essay entitled “Individual Success: Made of Goals or Sudden Awareness?” for
“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to
I was recently having a conversation with two friends of mine, Sean and Joe. They both work for the same company. They both work crazy hours. But Sean has managed to live a full and complete life. He has a
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