Are you tired of constantly chasing moving targets? Do you find yourself setting goals only to push them further when you’re close to reaching them? It’s a common struggle many of us face. We understand the frustration and the feeling of never doing enough, which can eventually lead to burnout. But what if there was a better way? In this article, we dive deep into the art of goal setting and offer valuable insights on how to know when it’s time to change, adjust, or push a target. Join us as we explore strategies to break free from the cycle of dissatisfaction and find fulfillment in your journey towards success.
The Downside of Moving the Finish Line: Why Constantly Pushing Targets Leads to Burnout and Dissatisfaction
We see a lot of times people set a revenue target, let’s say a million dollars. They get to $800,000, they’re like, “All right, let’s make it 1.2,” right? Like, “Hey, I want to lose 20 pounds,” and they get close, they’re like, “Let’s push it to 25 pounds.” And the downside of that, to start off, is like you’re never doing enough and you never actually get there and it eventually leads to burnout, in my opinion. It’s ultimately something that I think causes people to never be satisfied or happy or fulfilled or feeling like the effort they’re putting in is actually getting them results. Even though it’s getting them results, they’re never actually getting to the finish line because they keep moving the finish line. So my opinion is complete the initiative fully, then analyze and adjust what the next stage could be. I think so many people view targets as a finite peak, where this is the target, when we get there, that’s it. And ultimately, that’s just not it. The mission goes on, the intentionality continues, the initiative continues, the focus continues, your life continues. Just because you hit a certain target doesn’t mean that the mission’s over.
We use quarterly initiatives, and I think creating piecemeal together to implement a part of the process, then reanalyze and adjust going into the following quarter is a really big way to make sure that you are progressing forward at all times. Also, it allows you to check the box. We finished this for the quarter and we’ll analyze and adjust for next quarter’s initiatives. Ultimately, I feel like too many people move the goalpost when they get close. Should you never do it? No, I mean, sometimes if you set a million dollar target for the year and you’re at $999,000 in June, you should probably adjust the target. But ultimately, so many people get stuck in that constantly pushing, constantly pushing, constantly pushing, that they end up in this whirlwind of dissatisfaction with what they have because it’s never enough because what enough is continues to evolve.
The Power of Outside Perspective: Leveraging Team Input for Target Analysis and Evolution
I would say if you get to a target substantially faster than expected, reanalyze the target and timeline. If you undersold yourself in your capacity, it’s important to reestablish priorities within that ecosystem, whatever that is. Obviously, this is a very generic question about any targets or goals, and so it can be difficult to align specifically to what you’re looking for, but bringing in the people on your team, bringing in your spouse, bringing in confidants or coaches to say, “Hey, this is what I’m thinking. This is what I’m evolving.” They may have perspectives that you don’t. So when you get to a certain like, “Hey, I had planned on a million. We’re at a million in June, what do I do next? How do I evolve this?” Because there’s going to be some context to your situation that your expedited growth or your speed to get to that destination will have you somewhat distracted where you haven’t had the time to properly think through the details of the actual situation.
Bring in outside perspective. Like for me, I’m not allowed to change a target or initiative or goal without bringing in my team’s input. It allows me to get other perspectives, because sometimes, I’d say a lot of times, I might think we’re close, but because we got there something else broke and there’s people on the team trying to fix that other thing. And maybe my perspective is we got there, but a bunch of other problems arose because of that. And pushing a target too far or pushing it too many times will lead your entire team to feeling like they’re not enough or burnout or whatever. And you’re like, “Well, my team just doesn’t want to work. They’re a bunch of bitches.” Maybe. Maybe that’s the case, and there’s definitely some truth to that, but I think ultimately people want to know what the target is, they want to get to that target, they want to feel the accomplishment, and then they want to reset it.
Unlocking Success: The Winning Formula of Setting, Completing, and Resetting Targets
My suggestion would be to set a target, complete the target, then reanalyze and adjust and set a new target. Don’t do it before you get there because if you do it before you get there, sometimes you haven’t learned the lessons you need to learn for the next level. If you are at $800,000 and you had a million dollar target and you say, “Well, let’s push it to $2 million,” you haven’t learned the lessons yet necessary to accomplish and maintain $2 million.
So I would say set the target, complete the target, then analyze and adjust and reset from there. It allows everybody to stay on board, allows everybody to operate with a similar consistency and speed, and ultimately allows you to accomplish more in a given period of time because people like the carrot. They like feeling the accomplishment, and then if they feel this certain level of we’ll just say decompression, and then they’re re-energized to hit the next target because we’ve proven that we can set a target and get there. It’s very important to allow people to feel that. Ultimately that’ll allow you to win fast and win often!
