Stop Setting Goals

Yep I said it, goals don’t work. Like I always say, I not a motivational speaker, I like to tell people what not to do, I am an un-motivational speaker.

I hate when I read things about goal setting. That speaking your goal makes it more likely to happen. What? Or writing them down makes them come true? Really? Or having a friend hold you accountable makes the difference… ALL BS. You know what makes things happen? Work, doing things, structured habits, daily actions…. Focus, Efficiency and Motivation make you accomplish things… not writing a goal down.

Oh wait, but you set SMART Goals… oh my bad, yeah of course that is better… Why? Cause you spent more time making them? Cause you thought about it more? Cause you can measure it? I used to teach SMART goals and to my former students, sorry.

So if you don’t set goals, what do you set? Set your focus. 

You still have things you want to accomplish so of course you need a target. If you know me, you know I ask questions. What is it that you are actually trying to do… what is the outcome, not just a goal you can measure or something to check off a list. That is why goals are BS.

You want to lose weight? OR do want to be healthy? I mean you want to lose weight and don’t care about health? Just go get lipo, I mean two years of gym membership, trainer, your time and cost of healthy food… probably the similar cost and less time. So what was your actual goal? It should be daily and permanent changes you are making, it is a new you, the weight will come if you do it right.

Now you have focus, so let’s find your motivation to get it done. 

You want a higher sales goal? OR do you want to make more money? Work less? You can hit a sales goal a lot of ways, by selling more low priced items… but you work more and make less money. Is that what you wanted? I mean it met your goal… It will be harder to set, but can you sell more high markup items and make more? How would you do that, what are the steps? Where is your motivation?

You want to run a 28 minute 5k? That was my target in April. Leading up to a race day on Cinco de Mayo I was running 30 and 29 minutes… so that target was in sight. On race day did I pace someone running 9 minute miles and hit my “goal” so I could celebrate? No, I paced someone who was running 8s… and I figured I would give it my all, for as long as I could, and see what happened (could also mean failure). Guess what happened, I ran a 24:12, passed my target, because I didn’t focus on a goal. I focused on pushing myself and worried about feeling successful, not a goal.

Set Your Focus, Find Your Motivation.

Those are what matter in being successful, not goals. Turn your goals into targets, focus on your daily/weekly actions, and be as efficient as possible so you harness all your motivation toward success. This is also why I am not a fan of strategic planning, well the way most people do it, cause they base it on what they think they are capable of and what the environment will support… but that is for another blog for another day.