Why I'm happier and more productive by not setting goals.
The most important measurement for life improvement is not in goal-tracking, but in ensuring we progress towards who we want to be and how we spend our time.
The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our goals not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them, but we set our goals for the person we are when we set them. -Jim Coudal, Founder of Field Notes
People often stress the importance of creating goals with measurable outcomes. While this may be useful in some cases such as building a house on schedule, we should be careful applying goals to everything we do.
Goals are often arbitrary.
Goals come and go.
We can get bogged down setting goals that we don't sustain because they start to feel like we're trying to check boxes. Or our ideals change before we reach the goal.
More importantly, the goals we set often have an underlying motivation; a direction we want to move towards, to which goals can make us lose track of our underlying intention.
It's not going to the gym three days a week that we want - we want to feel and look good.
We can hit our goal and still look and feel like crap.
We can also progress towards our objective by incorporating exercise into our day-to-day and eating well, and there's no specific time when it warrants checking a box and moving on.
When we look at what we truly want, and what is most important to us, we find not a destination we want to reach, but a path we want to be on.
Happiness, peace, strong relationships, a sense of belonging, a sense of freedom, even wealth - these are endless pursuits that have no bounds.
They are only measurable in the context of our past - for when we look back over any given period, it will be clear whether or not we've made progress, and that's ultimately all that's important. They are not goals we can or should check off and move on from.
When you shift from 1st to 2nd, 1st is behind you. Then from 2nd to 3rd, 2nd is behind you.
I approach things continuously, not in stops. I just want to keep going — whatever happens along the way is just what happens
-Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals
Life contains a lot of variables and everything is ever-evolving.
We should get clear on the general direction we want our life to go in, then frequently assess what steps we can take now to move in that direction.
I don't make New Year's resolutions or pre-defined goals.
The direction I want my life to go hasn't changed much in many years:
- Remain healthy
- Spend time with my wife and kids
- Create and maintain strong relationships
- Have control over how I spend my time
- Do work I enjoy and am proud of
Sometimes certain things are weighted more heavily than others or require more time. I may cycle through projects, and acquire or lose (hopefully not) a friend, but where I want my momentum to go is relatively static.
Yet daily I review my options for what will move the needle the most to maintain the right momentum.
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I disagree.
I think it's super helpful to at least have a direction. People without direction end up all over the place. Jump from idea to idea.
Goals for companies are very helpful. You measure churn, traffic, active users, revenue. Without this, it would all fall to pieces.
And for personal life, having a goal is important too. Measuring it weekly, helps you see that you're making progress, which in return gives you momentum. This is invaluable!
Good points tbf. I read this article and tried to take it into consideration of my app, which is tracking activities, for example for self-improvement. I understand what Jim and Mac want to get through, in seeing the bigger picture, but your absolutely on point Marius. If the goals are overwhelming, try setting smaller goals. Smaller goals allow for bigger progress actually!
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I'm a in founding team of a startup and found myself lost and panic recently. We're in a world full of successful people with visionary minds and keep trying to prove ourselves everyday. That's so exhausting.
I complete understand and cherish your post, your direction is exactly what I'm aiming for now.
I found myself lost without the clear direction, it changes for me a lot, I am still lurking around, finding my specialty, but I love to write down what are my wants, needs and goals.
I am happy to read this. I have been following a pattern myself and have been more productive and happier than even. No goals, only improvement from yesterday. I will write about it sometime soon. Thanks for sharing!
My app is actually quite the opposite, tracking goals. BUT, after reading I actually understand why I have made the choices I have, which ressonates with this article. The bigger picture, looking at the progress through data, resulting in a metric for progression. Really liked the post nevertheless, good to get other perspectives of goal-setting!
Great post that puts things in perspective and reminds us to see the bigger picture.
For me, I like to also differentiate between outcome goals vs. process goals.
Outcome goals are like the big flashy statements, which are overrated:
Process goals are the boring invisible unsexy daily grind activities, which are underrated:
I find that you need some framework for process goals if you want to succeed in anything, let alone something as challenging and difficult as entrepreneurship.
Otherwise you're just a rudderless ship, a daydreamer with a wish but no plan.
Take full charge of what you can that's within your control, let the outcomes take their natural course.
I firmly believe that when you take care of the input, the output takes care of itself.