The years I spent in therapy showed me the willingness to believe you can change is the single most important factor in setting goals for self-improvement. While the will to bring change into our lives can be a powerful force to contend with, it can turn obsessive and counterproductive if we don’t understand the why behind our will. 

Confronting why we want to change can be uncomfortable, because much of what we want in this life is intertwined with both the light and dark sides of ourselves. Does wanting wealth make me greedy or does it stem from my need for security and self-reliance? Does my quest to lose a couple of pounds make me vain or does it comes from wanting to learn to treat myself with respect? 

As I reflect on the double-edged sword that is being a woman who “wants more than what she’s been blessed with”  the only goal I have this summer is to give myself permission to evolve past the limits I set for myself. No matter if all these dichotomies were born out of patriarchal idealism (they are), it is me, myself, and I who have upheld them as standards of success for myself. 

This is where I would normally list goals and how I plan to accomplish them.

But after 35 years of hustling toward a goal, a finish line, a trophy, a better me, I’m here to say the only goal I have for this summer is to find out who I am without the hustle.

This isn’t about being lazy, complacent, or altruistic even… it’s about being content with what is by making room for who I am without judgment.

Letting go of hustling, being busy, or constantly doing THINGS might open up a chasm in myself that will allow me to get acquainted with who I am without being defined by what I do.

It is scary to think what will become of my business without the fear, the anxiety, the “Survive at all costs” attitude. It is scary to think about letting go of the constant drive to practice and perform because it is my oldest memory, my clearest sense of self that I can remember. Letting go of hustling, being busy, or constantly doing THINGS might open up a chasm in myself that will allow me to get acquainted with who I am without being defined by what I do.

If you’d like to go on this journey with me, I’d love to hear why and how the need to constantly grind toward your goals played out in your life. Was it burnout or a health scare that opened your eyes to a new way of looking at work? Was it the moments you missed with people you love? Was it getting the thing you wanted and still feeling empty inside?

I don’t have a one size fits all plan that shows you how to go about uncoupling your worth from what you achieve, but I do have a few articles that helped me articulate what I had been feeling for so long:

• Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?, The New York Times
• The Radical Notion of Not Letting Work Define You, Man Repeller
• Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer, The New York Times
• This Author Wants You to Rethink “Following Your Dreams”, Man Repeller
• Why Are Millennials Buying Into Hustle Culture?, Thrive Global

I guess you could say that my goal for the summer is to do more… of nothing. I’m hoping that reframing “doing less” as “doing nothing” may spark more breakthroughs and headspace to make decisions that are not blinded by impulsive decision making, lack of resources, or the fear of missing out. Could it be that doing nothing might be the best way to gain the thing I’ve been missing in life?

We’ll see. 

Kate Arends

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.