Dr. Srikumar Rao says set a goal for direction, then let it go. Stop obsessing over the outcome and pour your energy into the process instead. His unconventional MBA teaching blends Eastern philosophy with business.
Chapters
It's Sri Kumar Rao week at Mindvalley. And I want to introduce this interesting idea from Rao. It's called set your goals and then forget about it. So Sri Kumar Rao is an unconventional teacher. He teaches at some of the top MBA programs in the world. There is a line to get into his classes. He's incredibly popular and one of the reasons is he's taking these young business school graduates in America and completely flipping their mind in terms of how they think about life. He's taking Eastern philosophy and spirituality and plugging it into an MBA program. Now one of his unconventional ideas is this concept of how to set goals. He says set a goal and then forget about it. This is Sri Kumar Rao going further on this idea.
Invest in the process, not the outcome. We're all goal oriented creatures from a very young age. We're told by our parents, teachers, school that we should set a goal to ourselves and then we should take undertake activities that will get us to our goals. And most of us live our life this way. I set a goal to myself and I succeeded. Life's a blast. Or I set a goal for myself. I failed. Life sucks. We live on a sinusoidal curve, oscillating between elation and despair. And we spend more time at the despair end of the spectrum. It's a lousy way to live life. There is an alternative and the alternative is that after we set a goal, we forget about it. Goals are very important, but they're very important only because they set direction. After the direction has been set, forget about the goals. Instead, pour all of your emotional energy into what are the actions that you have to undertake in order to achieve that goal. As you do this, two things start happening. Number one, you actually enjoy the journey. The goal is a destination. It's a mirage. You get there and then you're off someplace else. The journey is the only thing you have in life. When you focus on the destination, you miss the journey. But when you invest in the process, not the outcome, you enjoy the journey. And a corollary, the probability that you will reach the goal you want actually increases.
I hope you enjoyed that two minute idea from Sri Kumar Rao. Now, Sri Kumar Rao's teachings don't just apply if you are doing an mba, right. It applies if you're alive. It applies if you have a pulse and you are an ordinary human being who has a career, who is trying to do the best you can in life while truly enjoying life. He awakens you to why you are here, what your sole purpose is. And then makes you unplug from what he calls the matrix, which is this web of BS that human society has programmed you to believe so that you can live in your natural state. And if you find these ideas interesting, I invite you to attend a masterclass that I recorded with Srikumar Rao in New York City. It's completely free. We go deep for an hour into some powerful ideas that Rao says will change the way you live life. Best of all, these ideas are directly applicable. As you watch this class, you will instantly learn new models that you can absorb into your life that will change the way you wake up and face tomorrow.
