Creating Goals Are Overrated
Goals are overrated. It’s probably because many self help gurus and motivational speakers such as Napoleon Hill, Steve Covey, Anthony Robbins, etc. talk about the importance of goals. It’s embedded in our culture. Most people are goal driven. We work hard to get our validation of meeting our goals. After we meet our goals, we raise the bar higher and sprint towards it again.
Should we not set goals at all? No, of course not. Just like everything, it’s all about moderation. But goal setting has become too important.
To some people, goals become a fantasy. They think about the goal so much that they can’t focus on what they’re doing now. Goals also give pressure. Granted, some people respond well to pressure. In fact, some people use it as a motivation. That’s not good. Your motivation should be coming from within yourself. Instead of using the rewards of meeting the goals as a motivation, you should just do it because you want to. You should do it because you enjoy the job required to achieve the goal. Besides, why would you want extra pressure anyway? It just adds too much stress to your lives.
I know a couple of people that are very goal-centric. They focus on the goal so much that they stress themselves over it. When the deadline of their goals come they take shortcuts, work harder, and do whatever it takes to reach it. If they don’t reach their goals, they feel like a failure. If they reach it, they set higher goals and repeat the process—never reaching any type of satisfaction.
If the end is the most important, then we should just watch the last scene of every movie. Or we should just read the last chapter of every book. Or we can just listen to the last verse of a song. And… well, you get the point.
Goals are important but not that important. You should have a start and end. But what’s more important is the process—the actual path, plan, and action to achieve your goals.
So what should you do? Set a realistic goal, implement a plan, and then focus on the plan. Instead of worrying about achieving the goal, worry about if you’re implementing the plan correctly. Worry about if you’re doing things to the best of your abilities. Also, try to enjoy the process as much as possible. At least have fun with what you’re doing. The rewards of meeting the goals should just be a side-effect or a bonus. The focus should on the now not the end.
What happens if you don’t meet your goals? Well, just look back and see if you set realistic goals in the first place. Or maybe you accomplished something that you didn’t expect to accomplish. Maybe the experience left you wiser, more experienced, and more intelligent. Hopefully, you can also look back and remember how much you enjoyed working towards the goal.
Stumble it!
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I love this post. It shows that the journey, not the end is the most important. I do think most people get hung up about the end too much.