Why most of the goals we set suck

Owning a 40 foot yacht. Taking a trip to Japan. Getting a promotion. Writing a book. Setting goals is something that gets a lot of good press. The idea is pretty simple. You write down the result you want to achieve and set a deadline for it. If you are a highly productive little elf you might even drill down into the steps you will take to reach your goal and then cross them off along the way.

The problem with most of the goals we set (why they suck) is that they are finite in their nature. It turns out that after you achieve goals like these you are not rewarded with a big shiny bucket of unlimited happiness and endless satisfaction. It’s actually quite the opposite. If the goal is what gave your life meaning then what is your reason to continue after you’ve achieved it? There is a sort of goal reaching hangover that most people don’t realize they will experience and even when they are experiencing it they have a hard time understanding what it actually is. Feeling frustrated and confused and meaningless after achieving a major goal is not exactly what you imagine when you set out on the journey, but often times that’s exactly what happens. The higher you climb and the more goals you cross off your list the less meaning your life ends up having. Maybe that’s why the guy in the picture above looks like he’s crossing the finish line in the race to a mid life crisis.

To avoid this problem try setting goals that are infinite in their nature. Goals that are based on internal values that you hold are probably the best examples. If you value learning an infinite goal could be to always remain a student and to never stop increasing the amount of knowledge that you have. If you value your health an infinite goal could be to constantly improve your level of overall physical fitness. The idea is that these goals don’t have an end point so you can keep climbing higher and higher without having to worry about your life losing it’s meaning.