Goalless living?

One of the questions I have been asking myself recently is “What happens if we deliberately live without any goals?”

All the books I’ve read in the past and just about every other self-help book assumes that goals are essential to success. But is this true?

We tend to think that living without goals would result in laying on a couch in front of the tv all day with a six-pack of beer (or whatever your own particular form of goofing off is!) But I suspect that this is actually the result of negative goals, rather than no goals at all. A negative goal would be something like “I don’t want to do the housework”, “I don’t want write that report”, or “I don’t want to do any work”. 

The reason I have been asking that question is that I am conscious that many major positive changes in my life have come about without my having formed any definite goals about the changes. It’s been far more a case of acting on opportunity out of a deeper feeling that I am taking the right action for me.

Are goals/needs really just about a search for recognition, authenticity, conformity, nonconformity, acceptance?

Are ‘goals’ and ‘needs’ just interchangeable terms for a search to be accepted in whatever group we seek to be accepted into – or to be accepted for who we are in our individuality if there is no group identification? Even primary needs – food, shelter, warmth, cool, etc are a search to be accepted into the group that have these needs.

Maybe it's not the goal that’s the problem, but more likely an individuals reasoning behind them. Certain end results/goals will never lead to happiness in my opinion. For me, the hardest part has always been discovering what I want. Maybe it seems simple for some people and I might argue that those same people would answer “I want more $$”, “I want to move up the ladder” etc. But I think those are superficial things because what they REALLY want is whatever FEELING they believe those “things” will give them, NOT the thing things themselves ~ kind of like Fool’s Gold, if you will.

I think the reason most people are unhappy is because they are short-sighted about what they really want. You have to ask yourself the tough questions and take the required time to get to know yourself. I believe we all basically want the same things: comfort, freedom, love, acceptance and to make a contribution to this world. I believe seeking $$$ is what we’ve all been essentially “programmed” to do in order to keeps us all as working cogs in someone else’s machine. But where does it lead? I believe it leads to a false-happy; one where you’re never satisfied because you are reaching for the wrong things. This is the constant struggle we are all in that serves someone else’s purpose, not ours.