#35 - Don't Set Goals
Do this instead
In the last few years, I’ve become someone who obsesses over setting and achieving goals. Goal setting is everywhere, including featuring heavily in some of the most popular ‘personal development’ books of our time. Seven Habits, Drive, and Atomic Habits are all classics that offer strategies and frameworks for setting and achieving goals.
You’re reading one of my pursuits right now—my goal to write every week for two years is now 35 weeks strong.
But this week, I came across a framing that instantly changed my perspective on goal setting.
Goals have obvious value in both personal and professional contexts, offering direction, motivation, and a sense of purpose. They’ve helped me achieve things in the past couple of years that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.
But this new framing instantly made me change my perspective and opened my eyes to a new approach to pursuits and challenges.
There is a downside to goals, and paradoxically, that downside often rears its head after the successful completion of one. After achieving a goal, it might be natural to lapse, rendering the activity a one-off.
For example, if I decided to run a marathon this year, there is a very real chance that after the marathon, I would celebrate my achievement by reverting back to my ways before training. I might all but hang up my running trainers, leaving behind all of the exercise and good habits that I instituted before I set out to achieve the goal.
Perhaps goals aren’t the best approach. The alternative is standards, which could be more powerful.
The idea came from Prof G’s recent conversation with Andrew Huberman (possibly my #1 podcast recommendation so far this year) and is borrowed from the Military community. It was parcelled in a conversation about fitness regimes.
When you have goals, it’s very easy to reach a goal and then stop. But when you have a standard, you’re always staying above that line and have the opportunity to exceed it whilst never falling below it. It sets an alarm on the low end, that’s also very high… I love this concept, because you have a standard for yourself, a standard behaviour, a standard of fitness that translates to a certain amount of activity so that you are never unable to meet that standard.
I love this idea and could instantly see where it might have been more powerful for me to set standards for myself rather than one-off goals.
Let’s clarify the definition of standards as benchmarks that are not to be fallen below. They are the minimum level of achievement and attainment you can reach at any given time. In some cases, standards are a reframing of goals; in others, they are a way of obtaining the benefits of reaching a goal in a more sustainable manner.
For example:
Instead of my goal of writing every week for two years, my standard is now that I am a writer who publishes every Tuesday.
Instead of my goal of running a marathon in 2024, my standard becomes that I am someone who is always able to go out and run for three hours. (I could then build from here if I wanted to take on a specific event.)
Instead of a goal of saving £10,000 in a year, my standard is that I save £1,000 every month without fail.
Not only do these standards mean that I am achieving the outputs and feeling the benefits that I would if I were achieving these goals, but I am doing so in a way that lasts, a way that should avoid that lapse I might be likely to feel once the goal has been ticked off.
More than that, adhering to these standards that I set myself changes my psychology and the makeup of who I am. Having a standard for myself and the type of person I am means there should be no ambiguity or a self-initiated endpoint. Considering the goals I’m setting are there to improve my health, fitness, or general standing, why wouldn’t I want these to be taken on in a way that institutes lasting change?
What goals are you working towards that you might be better served by replacing with standards?
See you next week. Thank you for reading. ✌🏻❤️