The Danger of Setting Big Goals

Robert,

I love this strategy, Think Big, Act Small and Start today.

Thanks for such a nice and true strategy to follow.

Sally Beam | SelfHelpFriend.com

Good post, Robert.

I think we overlook how goals can actually be de-motivating in the wrong context. Concentrating too much on the finish line is often depressing because it makes you think of all the work you have to do to get there. I’ve been working on a big project for six months now and every time I think about finishing I seem to slow down, because I don’t know all the steps I should take to get there. Instead, I ask myself “What do I do next?” and I find myself moving forward.

Congratulations on finishing the race, Robert! I think you owe yourself a pat on the back for attempting a “big picture” without — admittedly — taking any progressive steps to get there. That’s a bold move.

I have found that visualizing what I want to achieve is just as important as identifying the steps required to reach it. (Most people can’t just up and a run a race.) The smaller goals, manageable goals become the finish line for the day, week, month … like your next three steps.

The goalsguy.com and a multitude of other Web sites (including mine) offer guidance and/or tools for goal setting.

Thanks for the post!

Hey Robert, it was nice of you to share with us your experience of racing over the weekend. I agree with your statements that we should think big, but take small steps in order to accomplish a goal we set our minds to. That way we don’t become overwhelmed by the work it may take in order to get there. Most importantly, we need to stay in the present moment and act now, instead of procrastinating or delaying our actions for the next day.

Thanks Sally! I hope it works for you…

Kenji – Great tip! I’m a big GTD guy, so I’m always asking “what’s the next step?” There’s so much power in that question and I find it motivates much better than “what’s the 100th step?”

Fawn – Thanks! It was either “bold” or dumb. I’ll go with bold. Is goalsguy.com yours? Great URL…

Hulbert – So true. The bigger the goal the more overwhelming it can be. I love to think about the “next action” rather than the finish line. Thanks for joining the discussion…

Sadly, goalsguy is not mine. It’s catchy though.

What’s your site?

Very refreshing post, Robert. We all have goals, but few of us have the motivation to think big and fewer still have the know how to accomplish those goals. Your advice is key, break it down into smaller steps.

Thanks for joining the conversation Darrell. I appreciate your input.

Thanks for asking! I have several, but the most active, most applicable one is http://www.fawnmcmanigal.com titled, Me Amoeba … I’m the amoeba.

Great site! Good luck with your “five” goals…

Thanks for stopping by! It’s a work in progress so I hope you’ll return.
Looks like the books you’ve written would make valuable additions to my library! I’m looking forward to researching that idea.

I’ve focused on BIG GOALS most of my life, and it led to burnout for me. I still have big goals, but I’m not striving or pushing as much anymore. My focus is more on going with what’s flowing in my life.

Focusing on the End Goal itself might not be a good idea, as one loses sight of daily lessons needed to achieve the GOAL
I will rather take it easy, enjoy and focus on what i have to do today.

Nice post. Starting moving is the key – personally I prefer big goals though.

i believe in dreaming big but dividing the big dream to smaller goals over a period of time

This makes a lot of sense. I have a big goal that I just never seem to get closer to realizing. You have inspired me to work on some much smaller steps that work towards my goal.

Hi Robert.

This sure is a potent one. Big goals are most likely to become causes of anguish when continued to be seen as big. We have to see the parts or we lose our energy to work on them quickly. Randomly setting a goal of reading a 200-page book won’t usually work, but having a desire to read the book and seeing it as a 10-chapter package, or as something we read when we have the interest, works out almost all of the time.

We are all fine with putting out the effort to tie our shoes, so we just have to scale that up for items of effort that are like tying 100 shoes, one-by-one.

ya thanks for such nice post…

So true!

Small, small steps and solid persistence make for success…

I must admit that I could never implement all of GTD. I think it works for some people, but I don’t believe in a one-size fits all productivity system. The big tips I took from GTD were “what’s next?” and the two minute rule. I might reread GTD to see if I can glean anything else from it, but right now those two tips seem to keep my productivity level up well enough.

Have you found that you’ve had more success backing off a bit?

You’re probably right. My weakness is “living in the moment”…

Craig – Cool man. Whatever works, right?

It’s all about “what’s the next action?”

That’s a great way to put it. I’ve written a couple of books and I always get people saying “I’ve always wanted to write a book. How did you do it?” Simple . . . one page at a time. It really is that easy.

Thanks for stopping by PickTheBrain! We appreciate your input.

Hi Axel,

So what small steps are you taking?

Aw, this is a really quality site.

wonderful piece of information, I appreciate it that you share something useful for the readers here

Big goals broken down over a shorter period of time provide instant gratification that we all want to motivate us that what we’re doing is worth it and paying off, if we don’t see the results from the effort we put into it, we want to give up and not waste any more time with it. This tells to either “move forward” or “move along”.

this is the one of the oppetunity to think about my life.in this world i’ll achive some thing in our future and then i’llshine like a star.this above sentence are spirit to my life.

thanks Robert..
it is the good motivation way to finishing the bottom line i m really appreciated with those lines.. but sometime we become more tired instead of applying those motivation lines but we must be keep going if we really wants to achieve our final goal….

[...] Big Game is now. This moment. This day. By living it and giving it our best, by being engaged and accountable to each moment, we not only feel better, less stressed more inspired, but we do better when the Big Game does [...]

Something I picked up recently refers to caring for our goals. Grip it too tightly and you’ll crush it. Fail to pay it enough attention and it will fly away.

[...] challenging. Like getting dressed every day? (Ha!) This isn’t an attempt to avoid big goals (despite their danger) but a desire to get realistic with change that can [...]

[...] short post that stayed with me warned of the danger of setting big goals when we aren’t prepared. The solution? Think big, act small, and start [...]

Magnificent. I shall use this strategy straight away – think big, act small! Thanks for this.

I can identify with the running. My trick is to ask myself “Can I still move my legs?” If Yes then keep running. Most of the pain/discomfort is only temporary anyway.

[...] Most goals will need breaking down into concrete actions. For instance, you might have a sensible, specific goal like “lose 30lbs in the next 12 months” – but how exactly are you going to go about achieving such a big goal? [...]

[...] Most goals will need breaking down into concrete actions. For instance, you might have a sensible, specific goal like “lose 30lbs in the next 12 months” – but how exactly are you going to go about achieving such a big goal? [...]

Hi,
Thanks for nice article. It’s really useful.
Keep the good work going.

This is one of the reasons I encourage clients to focus on the development of habits instead of mere goal setting and achievement. Habits cause the goals to be achieved as a natural result of the person’s consistent actions.

I think setting big goals is wonderful. But we mustn’t get too consumed by what lies in the future and need to focus more on the now, because everything that happens and will happen always happens in the NOW, so don’t forget to feel and enjoy the present moment.

I love this! I always tell people that they shouldn’t set too big of goals because its too hard to accomplish. I say that they need to set small goals that will work up to their main goal.

I am so appreciative of these varied resources that have been published for anyone’s benefit.

Robert this is a great post I really enjoy stopping by and reading your blogs.

Take a moment to think about this. The moment someone say I need to set a “GOAL”, I’m going to set a “GOAL”. They take themselves out of alignment with their “right now”, and that is all we really have is right now.

Our life is right now not next year, or six months from now. All of our power to accomplish anything we deem important enough to set a goal for can only be realized if we take persistent continuous action toward its attainment now!

This article is great. I love the ideas shared in it. Many people actually fail to achieve their goals because they are too excited about the big picture that they forget to do the little things that give the result. Thanks for sharing. This information could have been sold for huge sums of money. In-fact, its priceless.

Tiny constant improvement is the way to go, without being overwhelmed. Another benefit is each improvement keeps motivation you and give you another perspective of that threshold you just achieved.

[...] and is a good place to search for articles on any of those topics. One of their top articles The Danger of Setting Big Goals, discusses as the title suggests, the dangers of setting goals that are too big, rather than [...]

Thank you.  All I’ve been focusing on the last couple of months is “I need to finish my book.”  “I want to complete the writing of my book.”  “If I don’t, it will absolutely never get published.”
But I’ve hardly made any progress lately, which I blamed on brain fog, fear of letting myself down once the selling process begins (because I hate it so), and so on. 
Reading your advice helps tremendously, because I’ve just completed one small section.  One page, or one section at a time.  A bit like people who attend AA, one day at a time.    Makes perfect sense, except to perceive it that way, that’s another matter.  You helped.

[...] you don’t truly want something, you won’t be persistent enough to work until you get it. One thing to always remember when you’re creating goals, and grabbing your vision, is to set …://livelifeofsuccess.com/getvision/">vision, is to set them high. Not so high that you can’t [...]

[...] to divide big projects into a bunch of little steps. PickTheBrain has featured many articles with this very advice. It’s a great tip: take a monster of a project and break it down into tiny, isty-bitsy steps that [...]

[...] to divide big projects into a bunch of little steps. PickTheBrain has featured many articles with this very advice. It’s a great tip: take a monster of a project and break it down into tiny, isty-bitsy steps that [...]

As long as you break down the big goals into smaller modules it can be managed without getting overwhelmed. 

I love this post. 

Sometimes big goals overwhelm us. Breaking them into smaller modules is a must to succeed. 

Most of us are armchair entrepreneurs , just planning and doing little or nothing. There can be thousand excuses for not doing a thing but we have to keep our mind focused. 

Nice article..

[...] Perhaps you had goals that were 'too big.' For example, your resolution to lose 50 pounds in three months is not only huge, it may not be safe to accomplish in that time period. Or if your goal had been to write the first draft of two novels and revise another novel AND you work a full-time job outside of writing, you have a family, or had a family need such as moving, new baby, etc., those goals may have been demanding too much of yourself. That's like trying to drive from Key West, Florida to Point Barrow, Alaska (approximately 5,500 miles or 8,800 km) without a pit stop. Take a look at this marathon runner's post on the danger of setting big goals and learn about his motto: Think Big, Act Small, Start Today. [...]