Thursday 28 December 2006

Goal Setting: Big or Small?

I was reading a post over at Cultivate Greatness, an excellent site, that claims setting harder and bigger goals is better than smaller, more attianable goals. The one quote that got me was

...that your goal should be so big that it both scares you and excites you at the same time. Your goal should be so big that you have no idea how you’re going to do it, you just know that you will.

It's a very inspiring piece. This however sounds more like a dream than a goal. Dreams to me are the fuzzy things, often very emotional, fixed on one certain aspect of a series of goals. An example would be dreaming of standing on top of Everest, looking down at the land below.

The main problem with this idea is that there is no real actions involved. It's hard to know where to start if your only goal is 'Climb Everest'. If the goal was 'Go to the shop and get an ice axe', it's much eaiser to accomplish.

I do agree with the main jest of the article, that big goals are important to motivate and stimulate. It's easier to get excited about being on top of the highest peak in the world, not so easy to get exicted about going to the gear shop.

In the end, like most things in life, the middle path is the correct one for success. You need both the big dream and the small steps to attain your goal. Use the emotion and good feelings you get from the dream to fuel your somewhat mundane but important small steps.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam,
Thanks for writing this. I read it and expanded upon my previous article, which is a good thing for everyone! You can read it over at my blog--thanks again!
Josh

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