I’ve been going to the gym more or less consistently (barring illness and Hurricane Sandy) the past year and a half, and it’s never been an explicit goal. At the start, it was just “something that I should really start doing”, and since then it’s just been “something that I do.” I’ve been gradually learning a third language with much the same mindset in much the same time frame.
While I’m satisfied with my progress on either front, it feels anti-climatic, and I don’t strongly view myself as a person who “sets goals and successfully pursues them.”
I tend to be effective at precommitting to small but willpower-demanding tasks, and despite tending to add escape clauses for myself (so I can delay or abandon the task in case of an emergency) I’ve not yet needed to use one.
Overall, there seems to be a factor of risk/reward in regard to one’s self-image. If you decide “I’m going to eat healthier and exercise so I can lose some weight” or “I’m going to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month” and find yourself losing 9 pounds either way, it seems that the only way remaining to judge the different methods is by how well they’d contribute to a success spiral.
In other words, every goal-setting method has two significant elements: how effectively it’ll get you to accomplish the immediate task at hand, and how well it’ll contribute to your overall ability to set quality goals. To some extent it’ll just depend on your personality, and sometimes you’ll need to risk some long-term confidence because you really really need to get something done. However, in a good amount of cases, setting a goal that keeps up the likelihood of you being comfortable setting useful goals can be as important as what the goal is meant to immediately get done.
I’ve not given this conclusion too much thought (it came to me as I was writing), so feel free to point out if it’s obviously wrong (or just trivially true).
I’ve been going to the gym more or less consistently (barring illness and Hurricane Sandy) the past year and a half, and it’s never been an explicit goal. At the start, it was just “something that I should really start doing”, and since then it’s just been “something that I do.” I’ve been gradually learning a third language with much the same mindset in much the same time frame.
While I’m satisfied with my progress on either front, it feels anti-climatic, and I don’t strongly view myself as a person who “sets goals and successfully pursues them.”
I tend to be effective at precommitting to small but willpower-demanding tasks, and despite tending to add escape clauses for myself (so I can delay or abandon the task in case of an emergency) I’ve not yet needed to use one.
Overall, there seems to be a factor of risk/reward in regard to one’s self-image. If you decide “I’m going to eat healthier and exercise so I can lose some weight” or “I’m going to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month” and find yourself losing 9 pounds either way, it seems that the only way remaining to judge the different methods is by how well they’d contribute to a success spiral.
In other words, every goal-setting method has two significant elements: how effectively it’ll get you to accomplish the immediate task at hand, and how well it’ll contribute to your overall ability to set quality goals. To some extent it’ll just depend on your personality, and sometimes you’ll need to risk some long-term confidence because you really really need to get something done. However, in a good amount of cases, setting a goal that keeps up the likelihood of you being comfortable setting useful goals can be as important as what the goal is meant to immediately get done.
I’ve not given this conclusion too much thought (it came to me as I was writing), so feel free to point out if it’s obviously wrong (or just trivially true).