This post looks at a popular mode of working and questions how helpful it really is.

In my last post I talked about risk and how it can affect your decision to ‘step to the music’ which you hear, rather than follow the well-trodden paths of your peers.

When embarking on a journey of this sort, many people advise writing down a list of goals. Writing your goals on a piece of paper often has a significant effect on your psychology, as you orient your work around a tangible objective.

Many people advise setting small goals to meet as you work towards a big goal, so you are always working towards achieving a goal of some kind. I call this mode of working goal-orientation, and it can be very effective.

Another mode of working, which is the exact opposite of goal-orientation, is called process-orientation. Rather than align yourself to a goal, you align yourself to a process.

Say your goal is to be a great guitar player. Instead of setting yourself a list of goals (big and small), you focus on the actual process of becoming a great guitar player. So, when you practise your guitar, you’re not conscious of your goal at all, you’re lost in the act of playing.

There are pros and cons to each of these modes of working. The good thing about setting a goal is that a goal often reflects a deep desire to not only achieve something, but to be something i.e. a great guitar player. Having the goal in front of you can motivate you when your enthusiasm lags, or you feel like giving up altogether.

The bad thing goal setting is the danger that you will focus on the goal too much, and will filter out everything else. Recently, I have started making a ‘To do’ list every morning, which is basically a list of goals for the day. After a while I noticed that unless I wrote something I needed to do on the list, I wouldn’t do it. Even if that task might be very simple – like replying to an email – unless it was on my list, it wouldn’t get done.

The ideal frame of mind to be in is a combination of the two modes of working. That way you gain the benefit of both.

Buddhism has a unique paradox that stems from the belief that enlightenment can only be achieved by losing all your desires. A Buddhist monk must desire enlightenment – otherwise they wouldn’t have become a monk – and yet in order to achieve enlightenment they must lose all desire.

The Buddhist paradox cannot be understood on a rational basis, it can only be known through experience.

The ideal mode of working functions on a similar basis. In the ideal mode of working, you set yourself a goal and then forget about it, focusing on the process instead. The goal still exists, but because you’re not obsessing over it you gain the benefit of effortless effort – something that can only come about through process-orientation.

Effortless effort comes about when you are so lost in the process that you can do something without doing it, in the same way that when trees grow, they “do,” but without “doing”.

Effortless effort is about losing the goal-oriented mindset which says, “Now, I must do this,” and instead just doing it, as a bird just flies or a dog just barks.



Part 1 looks at what risk is, the ‘fear of failure’ which often comes with risk, and how this fear can be overcome.

In the previous post I talked briefly about Henry David Thoreau, and how he shunned the standard career paths of his day, choosing instead to “step to the music which he hears”.

That’s all very well for Thoreau, you might say. He quickly became acquainted with several literary giants of 19^th century America, including Nathanial Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was bound to make it as a philosopher and writer.

I disagree however, and point again to the decision which Thoreau made when he graduated from Harvard. He decided not pursue the standard career paths of his day – financially rewarding careers such as law or medicine – and instead to return to his hometown to discover his real life.

Thoreau took a risk during his final days at Harvard, and in many ways it was a bigger risk than the average graduate faces today. Victorian society had high expectations of its university graduates compared to our society.

As Carl Bode writes in the introduction to The Portable Thoreau, “Because he was – relatively at least – of the intellectual elite, people presumed that he would make the most his training and abilities. He would not waste them; he would not fritter them away.” Imagine what his peers must have thought when they learned that seven years after graduating from university Thoreau was living in his very own shack near Walden pond!

Thoreau made a decision that involved a risk. Risk is a key barrier which stops many people from ‘stepping out’ and pursuing their dreams. But what is ‘risk’?

Every day we make decisions which involve risks; however most of these risks are so minute that we do not consciously notice them. In a recent episode of Philosophy Bites, Dr. Richard Bradley of LSE talked about decision theory in relation to everyday life:

“Actions are, broadly speaking, like gambles and…every time you exercise an option or take an action you’re taking a kind of bet on the capacity of that action to deliver what you want, given whether or not certain risks that you face in the environment will actually prove to be real or not.”

If decisions are like gambles then some decisions are more likely to meet your goal than others. The smaller the probability of success, the larger the risk.

When it comes to stepping out from the crowd and following your dream, the key risk you will perceive is the risk of failure. You could try to be an actor, but what if you never find work? You could try to be an athlete, but what if you don’t make the team? You could try to open your own restaurant, but what if nobody eats there?

The fear of failure has stopped many people from pursuing their dreams, but where does it come from? Why do we feel this fear? Next I will look at what evolutionary psychology has to say about this, in the hope that it will shed some light on a feeling which is rooted in our instinct.

The fear of failure is closely connected to a fear of embarrassment and shame, which in turn express a concern for how one is evaluated by others. While this concern provides a useful function in maintaining harmony amongst a group, it can also be harmful both to the individual and the group.

If people were so afraid of failure – and the embarrassment which follows – that they refused to take risks, then society would quickly become stagnant. The same applies for individuals.

Often the fear of failure is way out of proportion when compared to more concrete fears, such as the fear of being hit by a car when crossing the road. Why is this?

One explanation can be found in the somewhat un-academic school of pickup theory – the theoretical framework behind the modern day ‘pickup artist’.

When a man goes to ‘chat up’ a woman, he will probably feel very nervous, as if his life depended on the outcome of that action. Pickup artists call this ‘approach anxiety’ and offer the following explanation for its origins.

In a small community or tribe, there are only a small number of potential female mates. If a man is rejected by a woman, his value (social standing etc.) in the community will decrease. Thus he is more likely to be rejected by other women and lose even more value. When there are only a small number of potential mates available, this could mean that the hopeful suitor will never find a mate.

Pickup theory states that men are naturally selected to experience anxiety when approaching a woman. This would explain why the anxiety can be so acute, even though rationally there is nothing to fear, as most people no longer live in such small communities.

If we take this theory to be true, it also offers an explanation for the fear of failure. Perhaps what people fear is not so much failure, as loss of value in society. People who are of low value in society – minorities, offenders etc. – are more exposed to ridicule and attack by people of high value.

Combine this with the prospect of one’s ego taking a serious knock, and the fear failure inflates even further.

What people recommend in the world of pickup, and what I would advise today, is that you embrace the fear of failure. Use the energy which comes with anxiety to your advantage – it can fuel your determination in the earl days of your experiment. Above all, accept failure as a possible outcome and be prepared for it. Chances are it will never be as bad as you initially perceived.

Embrace the risk and its possibilities, and enjoy the sensation of stepping out of your comfort zone.

Photo credit: rogersmj