Stop Setting Goals!

By Wayde D. Nelson, Business Advisor, b$olutions, LLC

I know what you’re thinking:  “The title is a ‘come-on’ meant to shock you into reading the article.”  Am I right?  However, at the risk of being thrown out of the “Business Advisor’s Guild,” I’m saying don’t set goals anymore.  This is against everything we’ve ever been taught from as young as we can remember, I know.  Early on in our lives, we had help setting goals.  For most of us, our parents helped us set goals:  First words, potty training, school grades, physical or sports achievements, and so forth.  Why did they do this?  Because, for the most part, their parents set goals for them.  Oh, and also because by us meeting goals, by extension, they met goals.  And we worked at these goals because, largely, we gained attention, recognition, and gratification from them.  Sure, a few of us gained intrinsic satisfaction – we were happy with ourselves and the achievement independent of what others think, feel, and feed back to us.  This happens more as we mature.  For a very few of us, we never have reached this intrinsic level and for most of us, it doesn’t happen all the time. 

Later in life, most of us have continued to make goals:   Weight loss and fitness, personal financial goals, etc.  But, for many of us, we have difficulty achieving those goals.  And also for many of us, we gradually stop making goals.  This is not the reason, however, that I suggest not making goals.  I’m not saying, “You’re not meeting your goals so give up.”  I’m approaching it from the point of view that understanding why we’re not meeting our goals suggests we not making goals. 

They, why don’t we meet goals anymore?  Let’s look at the differences between goal setting now and back then. 

Then	Now
·         Reward came from others	·         Reward comes from within us
·         Reward was tangible and immediate	·         Reward is intangible and delayed
·         Goal was short term	·         Goals is long term
·         Goal was within reach	·         Goals are lofty
·         Impact of lack of success was minimal	·         Impact of lack of success big

From this, we can see that when we had short-term goals that were within reach and we tied a tangible, immediate external reward to them, we tended to meet them.  Today, as we make long-term, difficult goals with intangible rewards that come from within us, we tend not to meet them.  This is why we should stop making goals!  They don’t work.  Instead, make “rewards.”  Instead of setting a goal for your business of making $200,000 for the year, set a reward when you reach $20,000.  Then another when you reach $40,000.  Then another when you reach $60,000.  And a tangible reward – like when you reach $20,000, you will take a cruise.  When you reach $40,000, you will buy a car. When you reach $60,000, you will purchase an RV and take a two week trip across the country. 

What we’ve done is convert our ineffective goal setting into reward setting.  Instead of looking at long term goals, we look at a reward ladder that takes us step by step to where we want to go.  Now, we have short term tangible rewards for do-able levels of achievement.  So stop making those goals and make a reward ladder instead.  You will find that you succeed much more.