In our competitive world, we are prepared from childhood to set different goals – those plans to achieve or complete something. In school, our goals are to get the best grades and get into the best college; at work, they are often linked to productivity and promotions. Even as the year ends, we are encouraged to set goals for the year that has just begun!
While it may seem like a positive and productive practice, setting goals also has a challenging side: many might assume that having them essentially means achieving the goals when that is never a given. And when you fail to complete what you set out to do, the result can be frustration, anger, and even depression.
Setting goals might seem like a good first step to achieving one’s aspirations. At the same time, this practice might end up being more harmful than helpful if you don’t do it right. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of having goals and when setting them is not the right move for you.
Ready Don’t Set
Simply having a goal in your personal or professional life can be an incentive to reach your objectives. On the other hand, sometimes you set goals that are too complex and that you are unlikely to be able to meet, which can be damaging to your ambitions.
Goals must be specific, measurable, and, above all, attainable – that is, it’s no use setting the goal of winning the lottery or becoming the boss of your company overnight. Goals can motivate you with a specific deadline for completion and well-defined steps. Otherwise, they can bring some disadvantages, such as:
Too Much Pressure
When you have an almost impossible goal (like completing a job in 24 hours or losing an absurd amount of weight without changing your eating habits), you are bound to feel the pressure and anxiety of meeting those absurd expectations. Too much pressure can be stressful and push you further away from your goal. So, take a deep breath, focus, and try to reach your objectives at a proper pace.
Fear of Failure
If you don’t achieve your goals, it is common to experience a sense of failure. For some people, this serves as motivation to keep trying and achieve them next time. For others, however, the feeling of having failed makes them afraid to set new goals to avoid failing again. Use your mistakes and failures as an incentive to keep trying and adjust your objectives to more specific aims.
Wrong Focus
Certain goals can make the person focus more on the result than on the process of getting there. For example, faced with producing a certain amount of work by a certain date, many people end up focusing only on the numbers and concluding the job, but without the necessary quality and the feeling of having achieved something positive. If your focus is just reaching the goal no matter what, you’re doing it wrong.
Set Up For Success
The traditional idea of setting goals is inherently flawed; after all, it’s no use simply wanting something to achieve this something. On the other hand, when you read the biography of successful entrepreneurs, athletes, or celebrities, this is always one of their top recommendations: how setting goals helped them achieve success gradually and one step at a time.
If you feel like you can’t achieve your aims, you might be doing it wrong from the start. Here are some tips for setting achievable goals and making this practice more motivating and productive than damaging:
- The goals should give you directions and define clear plans and practices you need to adopt to get there.
- When setting any goal, also establish a series of priorities to achieve it. If your goal is to lose weight, for example, you should delimit factors such as exercise, changing eating habits, etc.
- Always think of your goals as a motivation to reach an end, not something difficult/impossible to achieve from the start.
- Gear up with the right tools or gear that you might need to perform at your best, whether it’s a pair of eyeglasses to work in or the right supplies to get tasks done.
- Break complex goals into smaller steps, as completing each item of a checklist, rather than a single big task, will give you a greater sense of satisfaction and mission accomplished.
- Setting goals can help you better understand your strengths and weaknesses, even requiring you to learn new skills and knowledge. Always be open to courses, readings, and seminars.
- Remember that even the smallest goals help to take you positively out of your comfort zone, which is essential when you’ve been at the same job for a long time.
Always Focus on Achievable Goals
As we have seen, setting goals has several advantages but also some disadvantages. And while setting goals is a useful and productive practice, achieving them is not always such a simple process.
Keep in mind that achieving goals takes a lot of time, effort, and determination. So it’s not enough just to establish that you’ll work twice as hard to complete a project or buy a bigger house; you need to indicate the way to reach your ultimate purpose clearly.
Whenever you create new goals for your professional or personal life, try to focus on the achievable ones. This will prevent you from giving up in the middle, or feeling like a failure for not having been able to complete what you planned.
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