Sep 10, 2012

Milestones can be counterproductive

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Milestones can be counterproductive...

Milestones- per se are not the problem. The difficulty lies in how we use them.

Milestones become 'destinations' and we are conditioned to assign TIME and VALUE to them based on what is deemed appropriate by others.

1. Focus on milestones or the destination takes away the focus on the present, on experiencing and enjoying the journey.

2. Milestones are largely used in an external and generic way i.e. how you reach there, how much time it should take, what is the value or importance of the milestone, once you reach a milestone you are conditioned to have expectations attached to the milestone. If you reach your 'destination' this is how you are expected to feel or behave and so on.

Milestones would be useful if they were internal and specific for you; designed by you for you. How can we prescribe a milestone for someone else?

3. The past and future are both milestones and they are distractions. Undue attention to them subtracts from our present.

4. From a different perspective one might argue that one needs milestones to provide :

    a) Direction

    b) Encouragement and  prevent demotivation

I would argue that this is not useful.

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a) Direction: Direction should come from your inner self or a 'guru'. We shouldn't be slaves to milestones as the importance lies in the journey to the milestone rather than the milestone per se.The real milestone is your inner transformation as  a result of your journey.

b) Encouragement and motivation: Having reached a milestone does not guarantee reaching the final destination ( if there is anything like that in the first place!) The transformation within as part of the journey should act as the encourgement and a motivator.

5. If we moved away from the destination or milestones we would realise that by experiencing the journey to its fullest, by appreciating each moment we achieve a meaningful journey which is the real destination.


Minesh Khashu

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