Goals Set the Line Between Ambition & Enjoyment

Ambition and enjoyment are not at odds: they shape each other.

For the past 2 years, I have viewed ambition and enjoyment at odds.

1. Ambition: acting to achieve an outcome.

2. Enjoyment: acting to enjoy an activity.

I thought ambition was “impure.” If I’m motivated to do something for the outcome, I don’t enjoy the activity itself. For me, this is like lifting weights. I don’t enjoy it, but I value the outcome of a muscular body. But running is an activity I enjoy. I could run for years without improvement and not be bothered.

So, I aimed to follow enjoyment without caring where it led.

I am a casual runner. A casual YouTuber. But casual and laziness are cousins. “Casual” to me meant “no goals.” I’m not training for a race. I don’t have a video upload schedule.

In my two most important pastimes, I was lazy.

A conversation with friends changed my mind. With healthy goals, ambition and enjoyment are no longer at odds. Ambition shapes enjoyment.

🎨 Parallels Between Running & Art

Last week, I came home from college for the summer. All of my high school friends are home, too. One of my friends is a college runner. Another is an art student.

For 2 hours, the 3 of us talked in a dark car, drawing exact parallels between every step of the artistic process and competitive running.

It’s seriously uncanny how exact the parallels are between art and running. Some of the deepest truths, I think, about human nature. Enough for a future essay.

My biggest breakthrough:

Runners are their best when training for a race. Artists are their best when publishing their work.

In college, I train for 1 or 2 half marathons per year. The remaining 6 months of the year, I’m a “casual” jogger: 4-5 runs per week for enjoyment.

During the 3 months leading up to a half marathon, my training transforms. Every weekend, I run 10 miles. At 7:00am, I’m on the track running mile repeats. I certainly wouldn’t be doing these strenuous runs if I weren’t training for a half marathon. Yet, I enjoy these training months more than when I am a casual jogger (both during and in retrospect). Training is a different kind of enjoyment that’s shaped by ambition.

With art (for me, writing and video), I had no consistency goal. Since I followed enjoyment, I just published “when I felt like it.” I had trouble focusing on an outcome without devaluing my enjoyment of the process.

🎯 Healthy Goal Setting: Reversal

Healthy goals shape my process, not value my process.

Even if I don’t hit my half marathon goal time, the three months of training weren’t a waste. It doesn’t matter whether I run 1:54:30 or 1:58:00. The reward of a goal is the daily effort of striving towards it — not hitting the goal itself.

My next running goal is a 30K trail race in November — 18.6 miles. It’s the longest run of my life. To train for it, I must become a new runner. My nutrition, sleep, and mileage will transform. This is an ambition fueled by self-love: reaching new heights in an area I care about.

If I remained a casual jogger, I wouldn’t have a reason to learn and progress. My effort would start and end in the present moment. When I set a new, exciting goal, my enjoyment of training is enhanced. I’m thrilled by the daily effort of becoming a new runner.

Nothing is wrong with being casual. I’m a casual tech consumer. A casual photographer. I don’t seek progression in these areas. But running and art are 2 of the most important areas of my life. I want to push boundaries and do things I’ve never done before. My enjoyment remains process-focused, but is also enhanced by the effort of striving toward a goal.

🏇 Why Set Public Goals?

“Shipping, because it doesn’t count if you don’t share it.

Creative, because you’re not a cog in the system. You’re a creator, a problem solver, a generous leader who is making things better by producing a new way forward.

Work, because it’s not a hobby. You might not get paid for it, not today, but you approach it as a professional. The muse is not the point, excuses are avoided, and the work is why you are here.”

> Seth Godin, “The Practice”

During a race, runners receive an objective time, cheered on by 1,000s. The race is the best they are capable of running at that moment.

When publishing, artists receive feedback from an audience. The piece is the best they are capable of creating at that moment.

Public goals change how I show up. When I know my writing or running will be viewed — and therefore judged — I put more effort into it. My performance is my peak capability in that moment. Yet, I still run for myself. I still write and make videos for myself. The daily process is just enhanced.

I’m held accountable by the judgment of my work — even though the judgment is not the value of my work.

🎬 My Public Goals

With unhealthy goals, I procrastinated. The goal valued my process. I wanted a 100,000-subscriber YouTube Play Button. But if I uploaded for years without hitting 100,000 subscribers, I thought the daily effort would have been wasted. So I never posted consistently.

Now, I know the goal isn’t the reward — the reward is how the goal shapes my daily efforts. Ambition shapes enjoyment.

In the spirit of public goals, here are my two focuses this year:

1. Run a 30K Trail Race in November 2024

2. Publish a Substack article weekly until May 2025 (until I graduate college)

P.S. I think a large part of following process > outcome comes from internal validation. With unhealthy goals, I set them to prove something about myself. I thought if I hit 100,000 subscribers, it proved I was capable. But now, with healthy goals, I realize that outcomes come as a side effect of processes. The value is in becoming the kind of person who can achieve what I want — not the outward achievement itself. Enjoyment in the daily processes.