Paul Lemberg

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You are here: Home / Business Strategy / Goal Setting Doesn’t Work and It Never Did

By pl 24 Comments

Goal Setting Doesn’t Work and It Never Did

Want to get more of what you want done?

Maybe you should stop setting goals that basically don’t work
anyway. This quick 6-minute video tells you what will work
better.  It’s short, and it’ll give you a few ideas.

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments.

[flv:http://mm.paullemberg.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Gym-Goals.flv 400 266]

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Goal Setting, leadership, Time management

Comments

  1. Kris Raj says

    December 7, 2012 at 10:05 am

    WHY GOAL SETTING DOESN'T WORK FOR US. WATCH THIS VIDEO AND FIND OUT.

    Reply
  2. Chad says

    April 26, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    “Only commit to what you can control”. That’s excellent advice. I am in the process of adjusting our marketing plan and I think this will help us a ton. Thanks Paul!

    Reply
  3. Paul Cronin says

    April 23, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    Great Stuff Paul, as always…. I am trying to help other LI members cross pollinate with advisors and experts that help business owners. Our LinkedIn group is Successful Transition Planning Institute: http://bit.ly/cuJjDf. Perhaps you should join. best, PC

    Reply
  4. John Soares says

    April 22, 2010 at 2:05 pm

    Paul, I like this concept of process goals, and it’s one I’ve applied in both my work life and personal life.

    We can control what we do, but we can’t control the results we’ll get from what we do.

    Reply
  5. Rick says

    April 22, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Brilliant! The more our beliefs are aligned with reality, the more we’ll get good results, and the less we’ll be frustrated. In reality, we can’t *cause* goals to happen. This approach is so liberating and frustration-reducing because it doesn’t fight with reality!

    When I reflect on putting this approach into practice, I see a creative dance between my intention (reflected in mileposts), my action, and the world. Every response from the world to my actions doesn’t imply success or failure, but is an input to the creative process of unfoldment of my intentions. No more grimly efforting and struggling toward a goal under the illusion that I control the outcome. Instead, I humbly do what I can, and have the world as my partner in a surprising, creative collaboration between it, my intention, and my action.

    Reply
  6. John McDougle says

    April 22, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Paul

    Thanks for a great video. I also much prefer ‘committed actions’ to results goals.

    I want to add one thought. A committed action is one that must be done to a minimum standard/quality. So, in your gym example, it’s 8 reps with good form. For sales calls, it’s the questions you use, your attitude, etc.

    This also then makes committed actions comparable to project planning: Action = scope, Quality = specification and Timing = deadline.

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 22, 2010 at 11:53 am

      All good points, John. I call those, “conditions of satisfaction.”

      Reply
  7. Michael McFarlane says

    April 22, 2010 at 9:20 am

    Some would say that it is a “goal” to complete X number of actions in a specific amount of time. However, the key message is excellent: you can’t guarantee the result, but you can commit to the actions that might lead to the result you are looking for. This is much better that setting a goal for something that is outside your control, because if you miss that goal it just leads to disappointment, discouragement, and a negative vibration.

    Reply
  8. Alan says

    April 22, 2010 at 9:08 am

    I don’t get it.

    Can you dumb it down for me?

    Just imagine you are talking to a blonde model with a seriously low IQ – thanks.

    Examples of goals before and after your realization in the text of your post as opposed to having to watch video could be red-hot.

    Reply
  9. Robert Scanlon says

    April 22, 2010 at 8:06 am

    Hi Paul – nice to hear from you again!

    I totally agree with you. We’ve always said “focus on the inputs, not the outputs”.

    Too often a goal is “set” by way of a measurement of the output – whereas in real life, it’s what we DO (or the input) that determines the output.

    An over-focus on the output tends to force reliance on “The Secret + Field Of Dreams” method: If I think it, it will come”.

    More short vids like this pls!

    Love your work – wouldn’t be where I am today without Formula Five.

    Robert

    Reply
  10. Aaron Dragushan says

    April 21, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    Great stuff Paul, thanks for the video.

    Reply
  11. Leo Quinn says

    April 21, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Paul…

    Nice job. I long ago abandoned goals like…I’ll sell X in a week or make Y this year for just the reasons you gave.

    Did you ever hear that story of the insurance company consultant who had the salespeople knock on doors in a neighborhood they were unfamiliar with and say “you don’t need any life insurance do you?” (or something very similar)

    They got a lot of “NOs” but also at least doubled their sales because every once is awhile they’d find someone who actually did need it.. Their goals went from making sales to getting NOs which I imagine in insurance sales are REALLY easy to get (and control)!

    Leo

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 21, 2010 at 8:12 pm

      Leo – this reminds me of Fredrick Taylor increasing the lighting and factory productivity goes up. Then they decreased the lighting and it goes up again. Someone finally realized that productivity went up each time because the workers felt like people were paying attention to them!

      Reply
  12. Ricardo Calva says

    April 21, 2010 at 6:35 pm

    Hi Paul,

    Incredible simple, incredible powerful… There are some authors, out there, that translate complex ideas in something simple, brilliant. You are one on them. Congratulations! (For sure, you are one of my favorite authors!)…

    Ricardo Calva

    Reply
  13. Rod Beckwith says

    April 21, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Hey Paul,

    That is an interesting viewpoint and I am going to apply the “time” factor to my daily todo list. I think that is what has been missing.

    BTW, where did you get the cool muscle T-shirt? My son really likes that saying.

    Rod

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 21, 2010 at 6:28 pm

      Rod – it’s easy. Take one cool t-shirt and a pair of scissors to rid of sleeves. Standard warm-weather gym wear. –pl

      Reply
    • pl says

      April 24, 2010 at 3:43 pm

      Rod – just found the link for the Carpe Diem t-shirt: http://www.historyshirt.com/shirt/cgi/t-shirt.cgi?cdm

      Reply
  14. Abraham says

    April 21, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    Hi Paul,
    You mentioned in your video that Goal Setting doesnt work, but I just had an idea that might be exactly what you are saying in the video but I still wanted to share it.

    How about creating a goal and splitting it into actions / different segments of the goal.
    Sometimes a goal can feel very hard to accomplish but turning it into small actions
    during a longer period might work.

    I’ve never actually set a goal like most others, I write the actions needed to meet that goal,
    and it has worked everytime. Keep up the good work with the blog!

    Reply
  15. William says

    April 21, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    Many thanks for the insight…

    I once overheard you talking about the new Paleo diet you also integrated with your fitness program. Can you elaborate a little on it because I’ve been struggling with my own personal fitness goals lately and have found that when my physical goals are aligned then my business goals tend to fall into place as well!

    Many thanks,

    William

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 21, 2010 at 5:04 pm

      William – Paleo, Primal, Evolutionary Fitness… It rocks!

      Reply
  16. Shannon says

    April 21, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    Hi Paul,

    Loved this only, only do what’s in your control. The best though was when you said “Don’t worry about the things you can’t control.” If I were to look at how many countless hours I’ve done that, yikes, wasted energy. Since I’ve made that mind shift, not “worrying” but putting that time to doing some actions that are in my control, I’m getting some great results- thanks!

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 21, 2010 at 3:44 pm

      Don’t want to sound like a control-freak, but truly… Don’t make promises you can’t definitely keep!

      Reply
  17. Stormy Knight says

    April 21, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    Thanks for this clarification. It’s something that has been gelling in my mind for a while but you made it perfectly clear – keeping the focus on what you can change day to day can really move mountains.

    Reply
    • pl says

      April 21, 2010 at 3:44 pm

      Stormy – this was a real epiphany for me as well. –pl

      Reply

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