Living By Themes — Part 01

When I was fifteen, I spent a lot of time reading James Altucher’s blog. While I haven’t read much of his recent work — although I have a deep respect for his knowledge and craft — his past work was extremely influential and lead me to become the man that I am today.

In one of his blog posts — and in his book “Choose Yourself”, if I remember correctly — James Altucher writes about how “goals” are inferior to “themes”. Instead of pursuing goals, we should pursue themes.

There were a couple of different reasons for this, but none of them resonated with me too deeply. Instead, I thought that pursuing themes instead of goals, while a great idea, was less than ideal for myself and for what I was trying to create.

It has taken some time, but after thinking about the basic concept — themes over goals — and experimenting with it, I’ve come to realize that James Altucher was correct.

Goals Are Fixed; Themes Are Open-Ended

In essence, a goal is a particular aim or a desired result — to paraphrase the dictionary. When you have fulfilled a particular goal — perhaps, it’s earning $100,000 — that’s the end of the goal, and the end of the journey that the goal has taken you on.

More often than not, goals are extremely useful. By setting a particular goal, you know exactly where you need to be and what you are choosing to create and experience. For myself, setting goals is extremely useful, and it has been a tremendous aid in getting me from where I was, to where I am now, and to where I am going.

Themes are, essentially, a topic or a subject. Just about any general concept or idea can be a theme — in literature, for example, themes such as love, romance, adventure, and heroism are extremely common.

Themes are, in contrast to goals, completely open-ended. Themes possess no defined “end result”, which means that there is no way to determine whether or not you have “fulfilled a theme”, because that goes against the very nature of what a theme actually is.

To Live By Goals, Rather Than Themes

To live by goals, is to be constrained by specific outcomes and desires. Every desired outcome becomes a journey in and of itself, and a pathway towards a fulfilling and joyous life. But, as mentioned, goals are fixed, and when a goal is fulfilled, there is nothing left to do within the parameters of that goal.

In my own life, I have often set goals, accomplished them, and felt very little. Not because the goal was without value or meaning, but because I put so much of myself into that goal and I lived for the sole completion and fulfillment of that goal.

Yet, when I finally got what I wanted — in my case, it was love and money — I found that there was a sense of joy, and then a sense of uncertainty. So much of myself had been put into the goal, that it had become a far too significant part of my life.

What I had neglected, you see, was the greater picture of my life, and the relationship between that goal and the life that I was choosing to live.

Instead of considering the themes that I was choosing to live and experience on a regular basis, I was investing so much energy into the pursuit and fulfillment of a particular goal, that my life had become the goal.

When I accomplished the goal, I felt the need to create another big goal. And then, another goal, and another after that. It went on like that for quite some time.

Without goals, it seemed as if my life had no genuine meaning or merit to it. But, in the pursuit of endless goals, I lost track of what was truly important to me, and I fell into the trap of living a life that was fixed to the pursuit of very particular outcomes that, in the grand scheme of things, didn’t really mean that much to me.

Living By Themes

By the time I realized that what I had been doing just wasn’t working, I came to a certain understanding. This understanding consisted of the knowledge regarding the kind of life that I wanted to live.

In this picture of mine, there were certain concepts that I found to be quite prevalent. Concepts pertaining to things like good relationships — romantic and platonic — frequent traveling, fun adventures, freedom, and creativity.

Each one of these concepts was part of a general theme, and when I began thinking about the themes I wanted to live from and experience, I found a much deeper sense of purpose and passion.

Instead of living for the fulfillment of a goal, I was living, every single day, from the themes that, I felt, were crucial to living a life that was meaningful for me.

Naturally, goals were a part of that life, and I have never stopped setting goals and pursuing particular outcomes and end results. But, I don’t live for the fulfillment of those goals, nor do I live purely from the mindset that my goals are my life.

Rather, I live from the themes that constitute a day well-lived, and these themes, as you would expect, carry-over into a life well-lived.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for reading the first part of this two-part essay series! Hopefully you found the information valuable — or, at the very least, interesting!

In the next part, we’re going to be talking all about how you can begin living from the themes that are meaningful to you!

As always, if you need to reach or contact me for any reason, you can do so at “maxwellcakin@gmail.com”.

Best Wishes & Endless Blessings!