Hey there —

Mourning the death of those lofty goals you set back in January? We’ve got a solution.

Stop setting goals.

Before you chuck your barely-used day planner at us, hear us out.

Most of us deeply misjudge how happy reaching our goals will make us.

As Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of Yale University's most popular class, The Science of Well-Being (which you can take online for free, BTW), points out:

"We want to be thinner or buffer or have better savings or a bigger bank account, or a new PlayStation 5. We think that changing our circumstances will improve our well-being, but…we're actually better off focusing on resolutions that involve changing our mindsets."

Yes, goals are great. But if pursuing them is making you miserable, it might be time to aim for a growth mindset instead.

Here are some ways you can start the shift:

🏃‍♀️ Treat it like a marathon, not a sprint. Achieving your goals is not a singular action with a big finish, it's the result of hundreds of actions that happen over and over.

📏 Measure progress, not distance. Don’t hyper-focus on the finish line. Instead of measuring the distance to the “end,” celebrate how far you’ve come — and everything you’ve learned along the way.

⏰ Stop watching the clock. Don’t set a hard time limit on “success.” And don’t pressure yourself to keep up with someone else’s pace. Embrace that slow growth, baby.

🦶 Focus on the small steps within your control. What can you do right now to get just a little bit better? You probably won’t get a million subscribers by just setting that goal, but you can get your first subscriber by posting a video today.

Hold your goals loosely and make growth your measurement for success. Who knows, you might even outgrow and surpass your wildest goals in the process of putting in the work every day.

And ultimately, that’s the best goal you can have.

How Michelangelo Handled the Idiot Who Thought David’s Nose Was Too Big.

Article | by Cole Schafer

Do you ever feel like you have no idea what you’re doing?

🙋‍♀️

Yeah. Nobody has it all figured out. Including your critics.

Criticism can be extremely valuable, but not all criticism is created equal. It can be easy to second guess ourselves when we receive negative feedback, but it’s important to consider where that feedback is coming from.

Sometimes the people who criticize us aren’t worth listening to. Sometimes they’re just…idiots.

Take it from Michelangelo.

Read the article →

A Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life with Boyd Varty

Podcast | by Aubrey Marcus

It turns out that tracking down your life’s purpose and tracking lions have a lot in common. Although, one comes with a few more teeth.

In this podcast episode, lion tracker, safari guide, and life coach Boyd Varty shares how the lessons he learned tracking lions and restoring land in the South African bush can help us live more meaningful lives, and take “purposeful action towards an unknown purpose.”

Listen to the episode →

Freedom

Tool | by Fred Stutzman

“Don’t interrupt me while I’m interrupting.” –Winston Churchill

The average office worker only focuses on a single task for 3 minutes before switching tasks or getting interrupted.*

Checks Instagram notifications*You may think you’re just taking a second to send a text. But research out of UCIrvine found that it can take 23 minutes to refocus after each interruption.

Freedom is a desktop and mobile app that sets you free from your distractions by irrevocably blocking certain apps and websites, or even killing your internet access altogether, for a set period of time.

Try it out →

Written by Erin Nystrom

Edited by Matt D'Avella & Ashley Martin