Aiming for the outcome tends to leave the path leading there out of the picture. It leads to a situation in which the path becomes invisible to the person desiring the outcome.
One could think that the path gets forgotten when it has become a habit.
When the desire is to have some bread, the image in the mind rarely is a film of us entering a bakery, discovering the available loaves of bread and choosing one, asking for it, having it packed, pay it, and taking it with you. The image in the mind usually is one wanting some bread and then having it.
Naturally, this is quite a simplification as we know the steps and will remember them when we think about them.
And whenever the task “I’ll get some bread” comes up, the mind knows how to decode it and put it into place without having to think about the individual steps.
It’s sufficient to have a more general task.
When it comes to more complex and less trained activities, the process still is the same. There is a desire and people seek to fulfill it. But it doesn’t happen as easily as getting some bread, the objective and the outcome are less clear. The path needs to be discovered and mastered. The connection between objective, task, and outcome isn’t established yet.
How it feels, i.e. the outcome has not yet been experienced. What the objective can be needs to be discovered as a clear idea of the necessary milestones will still be lacking. And as they are not clear, tasks have to be imagined before they can be executed. It’s only once they are executed that one can review the results in light of the different objectives.
All along the way, there is uncertainty about one’s ability to get to the desired outcome.
More importantly, the focus never is on the outcome. It is on the task.
That is if one isn’t attached to the outcome and the certainty to get there. Whenever attachment to the outcome appears, the focus shifts. It is all about the outcome or failing to reach that outcome.
It’s taking the task up backward.
The challenge is to let go of that focus and to get it back to the task at hand. It’s deciding to move forward step by step. And allowing it to happen despite the uncertainty, confusion, or other struggles.
