Traditional goal setting techniques often don’t work. And as someone who has studied, researched and even devised goal setting models for 20 years, I understand two primary reasons why people don’t achieve their goals.
The first is that they don’t actually want to achieve it. The goal is a “should” goal, meaning that we think we “should” want it even if we don’t. Society, our family, friends, partners and even the media, consciously and unconsciously try to impose on us their view of our life. And that “should” is strong enough to drive us to set certain goals but not always strong enough to make us do what it takes to make them happen.
And the second is that, if we do want the goal, we focus on the outcome, not on the actions necessary to achieve it.
That’s the difference between what is known as an ‘outcome goal’ versus a ‘performance goal’. We cannot control the decision making process of another person, so while we may have the desired outcome of 5 new clients, that certain job or making $100,000 this year, we cannot control those things. But we can control our performance – the things we need to do to make the desired outcome more likely to happen. And those actions are actually our goals.
Action – Revisit one goal you’re currently working on related to your career, finances or health. Do you truly want to achieve this goal and, if so, are you focused on the outcome or the necessary performance?
When you get these two aspects of goal setting right, there’s very little you cannot achieve!