Seek the stick, not the carrot.

Goals don’t matter. Don’t reach for the goal. Reach for the process. The process of improving yourself daily.

Stressing or being anxious for a specific result will also cease from being a problem. Because there is no desire for a result. You just have an inner longing for learning, self-improvement, and impactful work.

Shift your mindset from anxiety-driven to mission-driven. You have a mission: that is to improve yourself everyday.

Results, will come without you having to stress for them.

long term (the carrot)

On the other hand, you still need to feel passionate about a certain goal. That goal though, has to be long term and more abstract. Otherwise you’ll stress too much about the little things. How do you balance long term view with short term view? If you only think of the long term, you end up dreaming all the time, overthinking, not doing much in the present.

You have to set up cruise control to lead you where you long term goals are, but then you have to stay focused on the present, you have to stay focused on running the engine, without overthinking about your trajectory too much.

It’s a balance.

Can’t achieve success without both.

short term (your stick)

It sucks. The amount of effort, of hardships, of sucking, of blood and sweat that it takes to achieve success is so much that if people knew, they would stop seeking it.

You have to be obsessed. You have to learn to enjoy the process, enjoy the hardships. Be obsessed over yourself. Learn to say no to distractions. Focus on the process.

It’s the stick that counts, not the carrot. The carrot can change over the years, sometimes it can even become an apple, or maybe even a bucket of apples. But if the stick isn’t robust enough, the bucket will break the stick from its weight.