If The Pandemic Showed Us Anything It’s That Goals Don’t Make Us Happy
If 2020 onwards is a social experiment, what is it teaching us?
I didn’t set any goals in 2020. Do you think it was a premonition?
Do you think somehow I sensed the world would flip upside down so for the first time in forever I didn’t bother goal setting?
Ok, so it was probably a coincidence but I’m not alone in having a goalless 2020. Everyone had to scrap their plans. But you know what? Most people I spoke to seemed happy about it, at least in the long run. Things could wait. Goals could wait. It all suddenly felt less important in the pandemic's context.
I listened to a podcast during the first UK lockdown, and the host guiltily confessed he’d felt the happiest in years. I too felt guilty for the same reasons. Was I allowed to feel happy when the world was in crisis and all my plans had been put on hold? It made me wonder, did I even want those plans, anyway?
I’m not romanticising the pandemic, I lost my job because of the sweeping changes Covid brought with it, but people were dying so I can deal with losing work. It was a perspective thing. Besides, I hated that job and now I’m poorer but happier.
