Exploring an unexpected side-effect of the fashion for constant goal setting

Reading Gretchen Rubin’s article yesterday on Huffington Post (Happiness: Should You Have Goals or Resolutions?), I experienced one of those “aha!” moments.

Ms. Rubin wrote about life in general, but what she said seems to me to be especially relevant to the world of work, where so many people are encouraged — often obliged — to set goals for themselves and for others.

Here is a taste of Ms. Rubin’s article:

For my Happiness Project, I always talk in terms of my “resolutions” — my resolution to “Quit nagging” or “Sing in the morning” or “Make time for projects.”

I’d noticed idly that a lot of people talk instead in terms of “goals.” I’d never thought much about this distinction, but yesterday, it struck me that this difference was, in fact, significant.

You hit a goal, you achieve a goal. You keep a resolution.

I think that some objectives are better characterized as resolutions, others, as goals.

“Run in a marathon” or “Become fluent in Spanish” is a good goal. It’s specific. It’s easy to tell when it has been achieved. Once you’ve done it, you’ve done it!

“Eat more vegetables” or “Stop gossiping,” or “Exercise” is better cast as a resolution. You won’t wake up one morning and find that you’ve achieved it. It’s something that you have to resolve to do, every day, forever. You’ll never be done with it.

Goals are short-term

Goals are the quintessential short-term objectives. Once they are achieved, they’re over. It’s on to the next goal. Achieving some goal a second time is almost irrelevant. They are like records: break some record in sport or elsewhere and the attention of the world shifts immediately to who might manage to surpass the record you have just set.

Amongst our macho, hard-driving current leaders, goals are all that matter. Whatever sales or profit you managed to make last quarter becomes the base-line for the next. Produce record profits this quarter and the company’s share price will rise. Match them next quarter and it will fall. That record you achieved has already become no more than the minimum expected.

Corporate hamsters on an endless treadmill of expectation

Of course, what this attitude produces is an never-ending treadmill. Whatever you achieve, no one will ever be satisfied. You are instantly expected to produce more.

Despite all the talk of being motivated by tough goals, I suspect this often acts as a demotivator. After all, if the only “reward” you get for some stellar achievement is to be told to do better next time, it is very tempting to make sure you fall just a little short. Not enough to draw real criticism, but enough to make sure that the resulting target for the next month or quarter isn’t going to become impossible.

That’s why fixating on goals in this way doesn’t work for objectives you want to incorporate into your pattern of work and life from now onwards. Continually “upping the ante” rapidly becomes an impossible burden. You are driven to push and push until you fail; and that failure is inevitable, sooner or later.

It’s easy to slip back from a goal once achieved

A goal of listening carefully to others might be met a few times, then forgotten as you move on to newer goals. As a result, any improvement will be short-lived. A resolution to listen carefully before jumping in with a response can stay with you until it becomes a habit and part of who you are.

Think of dieting. Hundreds of thousands of people set themselves goals of losing so many pounds. Some achieve it; but the evidence is that even most who do soon slip back into their old ways and put it back — or gain even more weight. Those who resolve to eat better and exercise more, then change their lifestyle to match, stand a far greater chance of losing the weight and keeping it off.

Resolutions have no ending point

When you make a resolution, your focus is on the long term. Set a goal of clearing your in-tray or changing your working habits and you only have to do it once to be successful. Resolve to focus your attention more consciously on what truly matters most and you must go on doing it indefinitely to meet your target.

When corporations set a goal of increasing quality or improving customer service, they are, I suspect, merely using the pattern they’re used to for short-term objectives. But better quality or great customer service are not short-term matters; nor are either capable of infinite “improvement.” Once you have a 98 or 99% rate of defect-free production, the remaining 1 to 2% is probably impossible to reach. Perfection isn’t available in this world. You may achieve a situation where the vast majority of your customers are happy, but there will always be some complaints — and some people who won’t be satisfied whatever you do for them.

Personal goals that are too ambitious don’t help you

In your own life too, perfection is out of reach; nor may you want to devote the resources needed to go beyond a certain level of achievement in some area. If it takes you ignoring everything else — friends, family, your health — to claw your way to the top of the hierarchy, you might very well decide the outcome isn’t worth the cost. That isn’t how you want to spend your life.

Yet nothing stops you resolving to make as good a career as you can, within whatever limits make sense for you to place on the amount of your attention devoted solely to work. That’s a resolution it might pay you to keep until you retire.

Here are some thoughts to help you decide which approach is right for what you want

• If your objective is a one-off project, or merely a point on the way you know you will pass only once, setting yourself a goal to achieve it a reasonable approach.
• If you want to change something about your life, long term, you need a resolution, not a goal.
• If you decide to set specific goals as part of a longer term resolution, take care not to fixate on the goals and forget the end you are aiming for. After all, if you miss a goal — or even two or three — but stay on course for the long-term, it will not matter one whit.
• Remember that circumstances change. A specific target might become impossible or irrelevant. A broader resolution can always be adapted to suit the new pattern of things.

The true winners in the game of life are not those who excel a few times, setting a target others will soon beat while they fall back into mediocrity. The path to a better, more successful, and happier life is more often based on making sound resolutions; then keeping to them over the long term, despite all the twists and turns and setbacks along the way. And that’s as true of corporations as it is of individuals.

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