Beyond Goals: How to Make 2025 Truly Count(Part one)

The Doing Goals

A few days before and after the new year, what would make 2025 a great year was playing on my mind. Then Rumi’s ‘The Breeze at Dawn’ poem gently poked me.

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth
across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”

I also asked ChatGPT’s help :

“One thing that could make the upcoming year fulfilling for you is crafting and committing to a purpose-driven project that aligns with your love for writing and deep thinking. Perhaps starting a novel would let you merge your intellectual and creative passions into something meaningful.”

So, yes, I plan to start and finish the first draft of a book I have in mind.

But I also want to win at the substack game, add some muscle to my ageing body, and increase my company’s bottom line.

But now that I’ve written them down, they don’t feel sexy. They are the same ones I’ve been chasing with mixed results over the past three years.

These have led me to a striving mentality, where I either get overwhelmed, freeze, and stop chasing the goals or cast them aside after accomplishing them and look for a newer challenge without appreciating the achievement.

Aristotle’s Paradox

The great philosopher Aristotle explained this dilemma by stating that two main categories of activities make life meaningful: Telic and Atelic.

Telic comes from the Greek word Telos, which means purpose, goal, or end—for example, running a marathon, achieving X amount in sales, or writing a book.

However, the problem with telic activities is that they pose a paradox. When we fail, we are dissatisfied. Our happiness is short-lived when we accomplish the end, and we immediately start looking for a new goal.

The excitement of completing a book wears off after a few weeks. Running a half marathon will not suffice, and we aim for the full marathon next, or hitting a sales target means we need to raise the next one. It just never stops.

The meaning we get from Telic activities cannot be sustained. Thus, we are always looking for what’s next—our fulfilment will always lie in the future or the past.

Postponing our happiness is no way to live—The more we continually strive towards success, accomplishments and goals, the more miserable we feel.

The Atelic class of activities are those done with no goal in mind. They are done for their own sake. The activity is its own reward. They keep us grounded in the present. These could include taking walks, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

Atelic activities include big concepts like being a good parent, dedicating our lives to a specific cause, or aiming to be a better writer. These are not exhaustible; they remain unfinished and a continual source of joy throughout our lives. Thus, there is no emptiness felt.

We can’t build our life around telic activities as we do with relationships and careers. To have more contentment and harmony in our lives, we should incorporate more Atelic activities that are only means without an end.

How To Make Goals More Sexy

The philosopher Robert M. Pirsig wrote, “It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.” While goals give structure and direction, it is the day-to-day act of climbing—the system—that makes life meaningful. By adopting this approach, we can find contentment not in the elusive “there” but in the abundant “here.”

The best way to feel the buzz of a goal and retain the contentment with our accomplishments is to align the telic goal with atelic activity.

Let me rewrite my goals in that manner:

Goal 1

My goal is to finish the first draft of a book by November 11th, 2025. That means I’d need to write for at least 6-8 hours weekly or approximately an hour daily. The thought of doing so gives me joy and inner peace. Completing the book is the telic act, and the writing process becomes the atelic activity.

Goal 2

Add more muscle mass and reach a body fat composition of 15% and not 19%(as of now) by the end of the year. This means I will spend at least ten hours a week between strength training, walking and playing Padel. Activities that I genuinely enjoy.

Goal 3

To reach 10k free subscribers with Substack. This is a tough one, as I know doing so means writing good content and engaging with other writers often. Again, this means at least another ten hours between writing and engagement a week. There are no shortcuts, and it is very time-consuming.

Goal 4

After last year's economic challenges and missed sales targets, the system we implemented—focusing on building relationships—created a foundation of leads and opportunities that set us up for future success. The company's numbers can only improve by continuing that momentum and allowing the team to do the heavy lifting.

As you consider your resolutions for 2025, I would like you to think beyond the end result. Instead of asking, “What do I want to achieve?” ask, “What do I want to do more of?”

Build your goals around processes that bring joy, growth, and connection. Love hiking? Commit to weekly trails rather than conquering a specific summit. Passionate about music? Make it a habit to play your instrument daily rather than focusing on a recital.

Let’s make 2025 a year where we savour the walk, not just the destination.

Here’s to a year of meaningful processes and unexpected joys.

---

Next week, I will tackle the ‘being’ goal rather than the ‘doing’ most of us are fixated on. Who do you want to be? How will you show up? Will you stop being a people-pleaser? Or will you continue being a controlling, anxious freak?