In the beginning, we believe that there must be someone in order for the breathing to be possible. There must be someone in order for the walking to be possible. But in fact the walking, the breathing is enough. We don’t need a walker; we don’t need a breather. Think of the rain. We’re used to saying, “the rain is falling,” or “the wind is blowing.” But if it’s not falling, it’s not the rain. And if it’s not blowing, it’s not the wind. It is the same with breathing and walking with the Buddha. We begin to touch the reality of no-self. There is only the breathing going on; there’s only the walking going on.
— Breathe, You Are Alive!, Thich Nhat Hanh
Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb. They want the job title without the work.
Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb). Doing the verb will take you someplace further and far
more interesting.
— Keep Going, Austin Kleon
Now for the interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed? For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?
I think you would.
The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. The only way to actually win is to get better each day. In the words of three-time Super Bowl winner Bill Walsh, “The score takes care of itself.” The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
— Atomic Habits, James Clear
Mastery has no end game, I discovered. It is a goal of coarse. Yet there is no turning point felt and reached. There is no singular moment when something happens and all becomes clear. Of course we who work with our hands consider becoming a master. A master of wood, of clay, or paint. A master of welding or hammering metal into shapes. Mastering the violin, the fiddle, the bow on the saw. However redolent the smell of the goal of mastery may be at the beginning to an acolyte, it doesn’t seem real once you get down to the work of the thing, the practice of it. Then it’s just your striving every day to get better while staying alive.
— Handmade, Gary Rogowski
This Builds Character 