Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to know when it's smart to make your
Speaker 1: goals more challenging and when you're best off keeping them simple.
Speaker 1: Both are sometimes wise, but in general I think the
Speaker 1: latter is more often the case than the former. I
Speaker 1: was thinking of this when I got a letter from
Speaker 1: a Before Breakfast listener who had been setting daily fitness
Speaker 1: goals on his phone recently. He wrote, my phone asked
Speaker 1: me to change my daily fitness goals because I had
Speaker 1: been meeting them fairly frequently. This got me thinking, is
Speaker 1: it better for someone to set goals that are right
Speaker 1: on the cusp of being attainable and being accepting of
Speaker 1: falling a little short from time to time, or to
Speaker 1: set goals that should be achievable and celebrate even more
Speaker 1: when you exceed those goals. It's a good question, and
Speaker 1: there's no universal right answer. I think that the answer
Speaker 1: varies depending on what you're trying to do. For instance,
Speaker 1: many people pursue personal records or prs and races, and
Speaker 1: the whole point of a PR is that once you
Speaker 1: set a PR, you have to go faster to set
Speaker 1: a new one. If you're recovering from an illness or injury,
Speaker 1: it might make sense to raise your goals over time,
Speaker 1: because something that was difficult at the beginning might be
Speaker 1: really easy in a few weeks or months, and so
Speaker 1: it might make sense to push yourself since you know
Speaker 1: that the future will be so different from the present.
Speaker 1: That said, I'm a much bigger fan of what I
Speaker 1: call process goals than outcome goals. Outcome goals are things
Speaker 1: like running a sub two hour half marathon, or getting
Speaker 1: an A in a class, or signing up a certain
Speaker 1: number of new clients for bank accounts. It's not that
Speaker 1: there's anything wrong with these goals per se, it's set
Speaker 1: some factor are out of your control, which can be discouraging,
Speaker 1: and in certain situations, outcome goals can also skew people's incentives.
Speaker 1: An A in a class is not a good in
Speaker 1: its own right. It's just a letter on a piece
Speaker 1: of paper. What matters is that it represents the accumulation
Speaker 1: of knowledge. But when the A becomes a good in
Speaker 1: its own right, people become tempted to cheat. Think of
Speaker 1: school systems fudging test scores. Likewise, you can bring new
Speaker 1: clients to a bank by offering a great product and
Speaker 1: great customer service. Or you can invent NEWGA accounts out
Speaker 1: of whole cloth and hope no one notices before the
Speaker 1: bonus checks get cashed. I think we've all read the
Speaker 1: headlines about that story. Process goals, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: are goods in their own right. These are habits by
Speaker 1: another name, and they do tend to lead to the
Speaker 1: desired outcomes over time. But even if you don't meet
Speaker 1: a specific outcome, you're probably better off than would be otherwise.
Speaker 1: A process goal is something like my running streak, running
Speaker 1: every day for at least a mile. Or if we
Speaker 1: think of our academic example, rather than aiming to get
Speaker 1: an A and A class, you set a goal to
Speaker 1: study for at least five hours a week, And rather
Speaker 1: than focus on how many new clients you land, you
Speaker 1: set a goal to ask existing clients to refer people
Speaker 1: to you every time you have a positive interaction. By
Speaker 1: their nature, process goals tend not to benefit from raising
Speaker 1: them over time. The point is to just keep doing
Speaker 1: them again and again and again. By keeping them relatively simple,
Speaker 1: we keep them in our lives, even when it would
Speaker 1: be easier not to Most days I run a lot
Speaker 1: more than one mile, and I'm always happy when I do.
Speaker 1: But by keeping the mile as my goal, I don't
Speaker 1: feel any resistance to it, and I don't feel like
Speaker 1: a failure. On the days when I can't run much
Speaker 1: more done a mile, I just keep going. So in general,
Speaker 1: my thought is that unless you're really gunning for something
Speaker 1: big and you're excited about a more challenging goal, it's
Speaker 1: best to keep the goals simple and doable. Our listener
Speaker 1: is probably better off aiming for five thousand steps a
Speaker 1: day and exceeding this regularly, but still feeling good on
Speaker 1: the days when he's tired or on a plane for
Speaker 1: ten hours and he only hits five thousand steps, then
Speaker 1: following his fitness apps directive to change his goals. Daily
Speaker 1: success is motivational failure, generally, isn't. I prefer to celebrate
Speaker 1: what goes right now. I know that goals are a
Speaker 1: big deal in productivity circles, so I'm happy to get
Speaker 1: notes from people telling me why I'm wrong and challenging
Speaker 1: goals that involve a big risk of failure are the
Speaker 1: way to go. You can let me know what you
Speaker 1: think at before breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listen and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E
Speaker 1: the number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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