Comments on: Why Goal-Setting Can Leave You Miserable

By: Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:16:35 +0000

I’m definitely an experiental goal setter mainly. I love just setting goals to see what will happen. Have fun with your goals. Don’t say write 3 posts a week say Be in creative flow as often as I can.

By: The Week in Review

The Week in Review — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:33:45 +0000

[...] The Stars – The Minimalist Guide to Leaving Your Soul-Crushing Day Job Scott H. Young – Why Goal-Setting Can Leave You Miserable Zen Habits (Guest Post: Mark Sisson) – The Simple Guide to Optimal Health & Fitness [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:56:15 +0000

I really resonate with this post. It was very insightful. But I have an idea to improve our self goal for instrumental reasons and experiential reasons. Recently I came across one iPhone app called Pocket coach. It was really good to use. 22 daily exercises are designed explicitly to accelerate the goal-achieving process . You can even check out here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-coach/id342949148?mt=8

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:41:37 +0000

Love the picture of Keeneland Racecource in Lexington, KY

By: noneed

noneed — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:47:37 +0000

Boring article. Learn something from Seth, write short, to the point articles. Dont bore people to death

By: Topi

Topi — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:19:33 +0000

I really like the idea of questioning the motivation behind a goal. Until now I’ve just seen goals generally as being good things, fullstop. But I can see that if you understand the motivation behind a goal you have a better insight into what you are trying to achieve with that goal.

By: Topi

Topi — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:14:41 +0000

I really like the idea of questioning why

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:37:33 +0000

Wow.. you are quite tall too, Mr Young.
Most nerds don’t have fit body like you.

By: Craig Thomas

Craig Thomas — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:20:38 +0000

Nice post. I’ve never thought of separating with experiential and instrumental before, interesting concept. Although, we do have the same goal – to earn a full income online. I can see the benefits of thinking differently around it.

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:43:59 +0000

Elizabeth,

I noticed that too. He made it as an off-hand comment during the speech, so I’m not sure whether this was household or personal income. That would make a difference.

However, the real question isn’t whether $60,000 is above the average, but whether it is above your average. My thinking is that the blog readers as a whole tend to be better educated with higher earning expectations, so it is more relevant.

Gregg Easterbrook pointed out a similar study which found happiness decouples from income within a nation at around $15,000. That is, the average happiness of the population doesn’t change after median income exceeds this amount (which is far less than Kahneman’s figure).

-Scott