But I think that while we waste so much of our energy in planning future targets  and trying to achieve them, we often tend to forget the drawback of this single-minded ambition to achieve.

No, I am not trying to argue that it’s wrong to be ambitious. Having plans is good, achieving success is wonderful. And not achieving them is disheartening. But when these goals, or outcomes, come to hold more importance than the process of achieving them, we cannot hope for the best. Loving something and selflessly involving oneself in it is totally different from doing it for the sake of achieving

a desired result. While the people belonging to the former category work not to reach the top but for the sake of pleasure that comes with the work itself, people belonging to the latter category (the driven, goal-oriented ones) work to attain things like success, money and fame. And herein lies the weakness of the ambitious go-getters. Since they are extrinsically related to their works (since their main concern is the end and not the means), they have lesser chances of excelling in their respective areas. For instance, a reader who is tempted to reach the last paragraph of this article cannot be expected to get the very best out of it.   

Even the Bhagavad Gita, one of the greatest philosophical treatises produced by our civilisation, warns us against being obsessed with goals when it says that although a person is entitled to work, the result is not in his control. This statement, though it sounds fatalistic, advises us to pay more attention to what we do than to what we might achieve.

Similarly, the lives of many great people stand witness to the fact that the path to success lies not in setting goals and striving to achieve them, but in doing what we like and working hard at it.  Mahatma Gandhi never thought he’d become the father of the nation one day when he started his Satyagraha movement in Champaran, Bihar. Lincoln never thought that he might be immortalised for his anti-slavery works. And Einstein didn’t anticipate the fame he was to later receive when he first published his ground-breaking theory of special relativity. Their secret to success doesn’t lie in having goals. Rather, people like Gandhi, Einstein and Lincoln became successful because they were passionate about what they did and didn’t care about what the future had for them.

So, even if we live in an ambitious, result-oriented world, it is important for us be  passionate about something, regardless of how small or big it might be, and concentrate all our efforts on getting better at it. For me, this is the best way to success. No, not necessarily the monetary success that comes with career achievements, but the success of becoming the master of one’s profession.   

Wasti is a +2 student at Golden Gate International College