{"id":946,"date":"2009-06-15T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/15\/why-i-stopped-setting-long-term-goals\/"},"modified":"2019-03-08T03:03:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T11:03:26","slug":"why-i-stopped-setting-long-term-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/15\/why-i-stopped-setting-long-term-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Stopped Setting Long-Term Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

I started setting goals about 6 years ago. When I started, I heard from authors and speakers that I needed to set long-term goals. Specific goals that I wanted to achieve in 5-10 years. I followed their advice and set long-term goals for my income, health, business and even the number of books I wanted to have read.<\/p>\n

I now believe that this advice isn\u2019t worthwhile, particularly for people under 30.<\/p>\n

You Don\u2019t Know Who You\u2019ll Be in 10 Years<\/h2>\n

One important lesson I learned was that, if you\u2019re investing a lot of energy into self-improvement, you\u2019ll change a lot in a few years. And not just in a single dimension. Your beliefs, values and goals will shift as you engage in self-improvement. A goal that might appeal to you when you\u2019re 18, might seem boring or even ridiculous when you\u2019re 25.<\/p>\n

Part of this change is from having new experiences. In the last five years I\u2019ve made hundreds of new friends, lived in a different city, built a new business, started a university program, participated in international competitions and learned to salsa. Perhaps it\u2019s a tired cliche, but new experiences change who you are and what you desire from life.<\/p>\n

Part of this change is from improvement itself. Goals that were incredibly motivating can seem boring once you reach a certain level of progress. I briefly chatted with Steve Pavlina<\/a> in an email and he mentioned how income goals were incredibly motivating to him when he was just starting his business, but now that he has earned a higher income, it no longer drives him.<\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t the same person in five years, how can you set a goal that is supposed to last ten?<\/p>\n

6-18 Month Goals Drive Action<\/h2>\n

The other problem I found with long-term goals is that they didn\u2019t drive any action. The entire point of setting a detailed, written goal is to create a sense of urgency and motivation in the present moment.<\/p>\n

That sense of motivation is often worth more than actually reaching your goal. While achieving a goal is rewarding only for a moment, the act of having written goals keeps you engaged and enthusiastic for months and years.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think goals set 5-10 years in advance drive action. It\u2019s still worthwhile to have a bigger picture in mind when setting 6-18 month goals, but there isn\u2019t much point setting a deadline for it.<\/p>\n

Setting a shorter term goal drives action. A long-term goal for me is earning a full-time income as a writer and being able to live anywhere in the world running this business. That goal is appealing, but it doesn\u2019t drive action. However, thinking about my upcoming book project pushes me to write a chapter today.<\/p>\n

Find Your Big Picture, Not a Deadline<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve found it far more useful to define a big picture for my life, instead of a long-term goal. A big picture is the lifestyle I want to live and the accomplishments it contains. No deadline. No hammering out the details. Just a big picture I can set shorter goals towards.<\/p>\n

My big picture right now is living a digital lifestyle. That means being able to support myself full-time from writing and running an online business. I intentionally keep this big picture vague. I don\u2019t specify whether it needs to be from running this website or starting a different online business. I don\u2019t specify the exact amount of money I want. I don\u2019t specify where I want to live. I also don\u2019t specify when I want to reach this goal.<\/p>\n

I break most the rules of goal-setting when having a big picture, but in doing so, I think it serves me better. Because I know I\u2019m going to change as a person, I keep the big picture purposefully vague. That way, instead of having 10 year goals that change every six months, I can keep the same big picture.<\/p>\n

Having a deadline is useless because long-term goals don\u2019t motivate action. I\u2019d rather avoid the deadline completely and just be patient with my projects. As long as I\u2019m working as hard as I can on shorter term goals and those goals are inline with my bigger picture, I\u2019m going to reach that big picture as fast I could with any other method.<\/p>\n

Embrace Uncertainty<\/h2>\n

More than just a method, I believe in embracing uncertainty. Instead of viewing constantly shifting long-term goals as a problem, I see it as a sign that I\u2019m doing a good job. If my goals stay stagnant for a long period of time, it means that I\u2019m not exposing myself to enough new opportunities.<\/p>\n

I say that this approach is more important when you\u2019re under 30, because that\u2019s the time of your life with the most frequent change and flexibility. If you\u2019re 35 with children, a stable career and a mortgage, you won\u2019t have the same rate of change.<\/p>\n

However, I know people who reinvented themselves late into their 30s and 40s. Colonel Sanders<\/a> started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was in his sixties. Even if you\u2019ve already reached a stable point in your life, that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t continue to embrace uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Ben Casnocha, who has an excellent blog<\/a>, writes that he feels he doesn\u2019t need long-term goals to motivate himself. Although he places this as a personal idiosyncracy, I think it shows he embraces the long-term uncertainty life offers and uses it to his advantage.<\/p>\n

Set a big picture instead of ten year goals. Embrace uncertainty. Oh, and don\u2019t let your life be written in advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started setting goals about 6 years ago. When I started, I heard from authors and speakers that I needed to set long-term goals. Specific goals that I wanted to achieve in 5-10 years. I followed their advice and set long-term goals for my income, health, business and even the number of books I wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,4,680],"tags":[26,211,304,314],"class_list":{"0":"post-946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-energy-management","7":"category-goal-setting","8":"category-nc-productivity","9":"tag-goals","10":"tag-growth","11":"tag-lateral-growth","12":"tag-uncertainty","13":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Stopped Setting Long-Term Goals - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do long term goals inspire action? 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