You Can Set Goals — Or You Can Get Out of the Way
I once heard Abraham Hicks say something that stuck with me — not because I immediately agreed with it, but because it lingered.
She said you can either set goals consciously,
or you can be happy in the now and let life come to you.
At first glance, that sounds like a false choice. Or maybe a dodge.
We’re trained to believe that if we’re not aiming at something, we’re drifting.
But the idea wouldn’t leave me alone.
Not because it felt radical —
but because it quietly described how I already live.
Two ways of moving through life
Most people I know operate in one of two modes.
The first is intentional steering.
Set the goal. Break it down. Track progress. Adjust. Repeat.
That mode built a lot of good things.
Companies. Careers. Infrastructure. Stability.
The second mode is less discussed.
It’s not anti-goal.
It’s not passive.
It’s not lazy.
It’s a way of living where you focus less on directing life
and more on not interfering with it.
What “letting life come to you” actually means
Stripped of spiritual language, it’s very simple.
It means:
- staying calm
- staying present
- keeping your nervous system settled
- paying attention to what shows up
- responding when something feels alive rather than forced
There’s still movement.
There’s still decision-making.
There’s still work.
But it doesn’t feel like wrestling the future into submission.
It feels more like timing.
Why this works for some people
I’ve never been great at visualizing.
I don’t see vivid mental movies of future outcomes.
That whole “picture yourself achieving it” approach never really landed for me.
What does work are words.
Phrases.
Mantras.
Short, well-chosen sentences.
They don’t create images directly —
but they seem to organize my thinking just enough
that images, ideas, and actions arise on their own.
That’s been true for as long as I can remember.
So when Abraham talks about “DNA knowing what it wants,”
I don’t hear mysticism.
I hear a simpler idea:
there’s a kind of built-in intelligence that works best
when it isn’t being micromanaged.
Presence is not ambition’s enemy
This is important.
Living in the now doesn’t mean rejecting ambition.
It means changing where ambition originates.
Instead of:
“I should want this because it signals success,”
it becomes:
“This feels like the next honest step.”
That difference is subtle — and enormous.
I’ve watched people race after titles, corner offices, certain neighborhoods, certain symbols of arrival.
It never quite computed for me.
Not because those things are wrong —
but because the chase itself felt louder than the reward.
That’s not a judgment.
It’s just a mismatch.
The quiet alternative
For me, the operating mode has always been something like this:
- live in the now
- stay as calm and happy as possible
- let life come to me
That doesn’t mean nothing happens.
It means things tend to arrive sideways, unforced, and oddly well-timed.
Opportunities.
Projects.
Conversations.
Work that fits.
Not because I manifested them —
but because I was available when they appeared.
No prescriptions here
This isn’t an argument against goal-setting.
Plenty of people thrive on it.
And it’s not advice to stop trying.
Effort still matters.
It’s simply an observation:
Sometimes clarity doesn’t come from deciding harder.
It comes from settling down enough to notice what’s already there.
If you’re wired for that mode, you probably recognize it immediately.
And if you’re not, this post isn’t meant to convert you.
It’s just a reminder that not everyone is meant to live the same way —
and that getting out of the way can be a form of intelligence too.
Aaron Rose is a software engineer and technology writer at tech-reader.blog and aaronrose.blog.
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