This is an excellent essay by blogger Charlie Broadway. I tend to like quite a lot of his stuff, but this one’s even better as it isn’t replete with profanity.

His most trenchant observation is that we often equate ambition and goals and these two things really shouldn’t be the same. If you lower your ambition, it doesn’t mean you won’t be making (and accomplishing) goals. I think this is a very refreshing way of putting it.

It’s also very interesting the way in which he puts a Zen spin on it–and the way in which he explains Zen as being “less contradictory than paradoxical.” By doing less, you will often paradoxically end up with more. I especially liked this part:

We all experience these paradoxes. By living as a pauper, you become rich. By becoming less ambitious, you become more successful. By eliminating the unnecessary, life becomes fuller. By enduring the pain of exercise, you feel better. By having fewer goals, you achieve more. We live Zen more than we realize.

Go and have a read of the entire post here.