From many people we hear that the main thing in our life is to set goals for ourselves and achieve them. But there are some people who do not consider goals to be something important and even oppose such an approach.
Never set goals for yourself. Some people are surprised by this position, given that we are talking about performance and productivity. This strategy is rather ambiguous and therefore causes a lot of controversy. Even those who work in social networks can say that without a goal they will not achieve the desired result. If you want to get a millionth audience, then you need to set a goal, right? And then do everything to achieve it: publish content, buy TikTok followers, interact with other accounts. What’s wrong here?
Do I need to set goals for my personal business, plan income figures, number of books sold, or something else? Traditional metrics goals are overrated. Goals are a strange concept when you think about it.
We set goals because we want our actions to make sense, because we have an innate desire to work towards something. Goals become a magnet to which we orient our actions.
But the problem with goals based on metrics is obvious: metrics are not the end point, they’re just part of what we can do. After we have an audience of a million people, we can get another million. The main thing is not to get used to the fact that you can always buy followers on TikTok. Try to work hard to achieve your goal.
When you become a partner in the company and the salary exceeds $100,000, you will be able to move forward. Often, once set targets are reached, little is changed.
Goals should be the end point, the summing up. But traditional goals are usually not like that: we keep going far beyond the original idea.
That’s why we came to the conclusion that instead of goals, you should focus on projects and habits.
Projects allow you to focus on creating something great. A completed project is the culmination of many milestones, the final achievement at the end of your to-do list. Completing a project is a natural end result: once you’ve sent it out into the world, you can move on to the next one. A project is not an indicator, it is something concrete that you do. Once one is completed, you can move on to the next.
Habits are process-centered. It is this process that leads you to the indicators you want to achieve. Avoiding takeout will help you lose weight, creating quality content will help grow your podcast or mailing list, and creating concentration rituals will help you make more money and lead a more balanced lifestyle.
This approach, in which you call what you want not as a goal, but as a project or a habit, can greatly help you. Projects have a natural end point, and habits are things you do all the time. Both touch on the essence of success: creating strong rituals that help you get meaningful work done.
For example, this method can manifest itself in an attempt to lose weight. If you want to lose 10 kilograms, then this is an indicator, not an end point: the work does not stop when you reach the desired weight. It is much better and more productive to work on habits.
In particular, over the three most important ones:
Focus not on what you eat, but on why you eat. No need to eat out of boredom, as a distraction from work or entertainment. You only need to eat when you are hungry and when your body wants food.
Wait until you feel hungry and your body asks for food.
Don’t snack after 8 p.m., except twice a week when you want to treat yourself.
As you develop these three habits, you may discover something wonderful. The more you focus on them and the less you dwell on the desire to lose weight, the closer you come to achieving the original goal.
The same thing happens with projects. The key to work is usually several projects during the day at the same time (work that involves and motivates you to do something specific that helps your business and your customers).
A constant stream of interesting projects means you’re always working on something meaningful, something that advances your work and ultimately brings more success to you and your customers.
Goals are often too specific to strive for. This is also why five-year plans often don’t work: if you know exactly where you’re going to be in five years, you’re probably either being too careful or not considering all the risks in your career or life.
Instead of aiming for a certain indicator, focus on what will lead you to it. This usually means completing projects and developing habits that are good for you.
