Without Goals, You're a Pawn
Content from Personal Growth
Without Goals, You're a Pawn
And here’s the truth no one wants to hear; when you don’t have goals of your own, you spend your life serving someone else’s.
This isn’t a conspiracy theory or motivational fluff it’s the simple reality.
The world is full of agendas: corporate algorithms, government, influencers, advertisers, bosses. They want your time, attention, energy, and every dollar you can spend. If you don’t plant a flag in the ground and say, This is where I’m going, the world will pull you in whatever direction serves it best instead.
You need a goal in life to be happy. You need purpose. It doesn’t have to be big. You don’t need to cure cancer or feed the hungry. Run your first marathon, write a novel no one will read, have a piece of pizza from every joint in NY.
The size of the goal doesn’t matter. The existence of it does.
Without goals, you drift from one thing to the next, living reactively, pulled by every current that passes by.
Control by Drift
Without personal goals, you are vulnerable. Society will steer you one way. Corporations another. Social media will have its way with you and convince you that you like it.
Cheap dopamine is easy to swallow.
Goals are your compass. They give you direction.
When someone suggests something that conflicts with your goals, it creates friction. That friction is what gives you agency. It’s the moment you can choose. It’s how you build a version of yourself you respect.
Without goals, there’s no friction. No decision. You just drift.
This isn’t abstract theory. You are a series of feedback loops. You must have a target otherwise the system defaults to one for you.
Others Consume You
You don’t realize it, but when you have no goals, you’re helping someone else achieve theirs.
There is no such thing as no goal. Everyone is seeking something. If you don’t define your goals someone else will do it for you.
When I tell people this, they bristle. It doesn’t feel good to think you’re be controlled by some entity. But, I promise, without your own goals you are feeding into someone else’s design of the world.
Your time, energy, and attention will be used by corporations or individuals to further their agendas. It’s rarely malicious. More often you’re just another number on a screen talking about user growth, revenue, or retention rates. You don’t exist as anything more than data in a table.
But your life is still being directed. You are a piece on a chessboard guided by a hand you’ll never see.
Pawn Behavior
I call this Pawn Behavior.
You’re endlessly scrolling, hopping from one fad to the next, filling every empty moment with a barrage of distractions.
You don’t act — you react.
Your purpose is finding the funniest Tiktok and sending it to the group chat. Your function is to binge-watching whatever Netflix says is quality content.
It’s not a bad life. It’s probably pretty fun! You have something to chat about with your coworkers. You’re in the know.
But you know something is missing. You’re unfulfilled. You’re disconnected from who you were and who you want to become. You’re bound by the zeitgeist, mired by slop.
And every day you keep living like this, the loop tightens. It gets harder to break free. You feel awkward trying something new. You tell yourself it’s easier to just keep going.
You can keep playing pawn. Keep chasing cheap dopamine. Keep mistaking distraction for freedom.
But don’t pretend you’re in control. You’re not.
You’re being moved, used, and drained by a system that doesn’t care if you win.
The moment you choose a goal, even a small one, is the moment you stop being a pawn and start playing your own game. Until then, you’re just another piece on someone else’s board.