I Don't Believe in Goals

I don’t believe in goals.

I know how that sounds. Before you brush past this post - I’m not talking about organizational targets, OKRs, or the commitments that move a business forward. Those matter. I mean personal goals. The kind people write on January 1st, tape to the mirror, or affix to their careers.

There’s a passage in Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse - a book I’ve read more times than I can count. Siddartha says:

When someone is seeking, he only sees the thing that he is seeking. He is unable to find anything because he has a goal. Because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means to have a goal. But finding means to be free. To be receptive. To have no goal. You, oh worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.

Late in my Accenture career, I fixated on moving back to Business Consulting. I’d spent years in large-scale technology delivery and wanted to return to the part of the work where strategy defined the path - not where you designed and delivered it. I wanted those skills sharp again. I went to the North America leader for Consulting and made my case. He told me no. Flat out. Didn’t think I was a fit.

I stewed. For a while.

Then something shifted. I stopped fixating on the destination and started paying attention to what was in front of me - and around me. A year later, the opportunity at Cox emerged. I would have never considered it if I’d made it back to Consulting. It might not have even been an opportunity. And everything I’ve become in the years since - the AI transformation work, the leadership, the teams, the mission - I would change none of it. The North America leader didn’t close a door. He cleared my vision.

Here’s the tension I’ve made peace with: I do have a goal. One. Be better today than I was yesterday. That’s it.

No endpoint. No finish line. It points a direction without closing a door.

Everything I’ve found worth finding came from moving with curiosity, not a target. The moment you stop gripping the destination, you start noticing what’s actually possible.

Seek less. Find more.