Why You MUST Limit Your Goals

If you ever find yourself wondering what you can do to get your motivation and energy back to where you know it’s been in the past, then this article and video is just what you need!

 

The Key to Maintaining Energy and Motivation

One of the biggest revelations I have had about this topic, probably in the past 10 years, has been about limiting the number of goals I set for myself.

Having coached hundreds of senior leaders, I’ve noticed several common patterns.

Highly driven, motivated people overestimate what they deliver or achieve while underestimating the time and effort it takes.

One of the things I’m very conscious about doing now is setting myself a limited number of goals.

This was really highlighted for me when I read the book ‘The Four Disciplines of Execution’ by Chris McChesney, Jim Huling, and Sean Covey.

The authors liken the day-to-day running of a business, department or even team to a whirlwind.

The whirlwind represents all those day-to-day tasks that must be done to keep the business or the team running at its normal level. It’s your standard KPIs and metrics, your standard goals and objectives, that have got to be hit and delivered.

 

 

The Power of Focused Goals

The book also cites Gallup research about how many goals a business could deliver with excellence in addition to the day-to-day whirlwind.

This is where it starts to get interesting.

If we have two to three additional projects, those needle-moving projects, maybe the strategic initiatives that are going on, if we are working on two to three of those at any one time in addition to the whirlwind, the research suggests that two to three will get delivered with excellence, i.e., to a very high standard.

When that number grows to four to ten, the number delivered with excellence drops to one to two.

And as soon as we reach eleven or more, the number delivered with excellence drops to a big fat zero.

This is an approach I’ve applied personally and within my business to great effect.

 

Turning Theory into Practice

So, if you want to maintain and manage your energy and motivation, I encourage you to be very intentional about the number of projects you take on.

In my business, I will not take on more than two additional projects at any time. More often than not, it’s just one. Everything else gets logged on the ideas list and/or scheduled on the annual plan.

 

Incremental Progress for Sustained Motivation

The final thing here is that on a personal level, whatever goals you set for yourself, be mindful of your starting point.

Try to build in and create some incremental goals.

For example, if you suddenly decide that you want to change your eating habits and start eating more healthily, it’s not uncommon for someone who is highly driven to say…

“Right, that’s it. I’m cutting out sugar, I’m stopping eating carbs, and I’m going pescatarian.”

We try and do everything all at once and it’s just too big a step for most of us.

A better approach is to take advice from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, and break your goals down into lots of smaller, manageable steps.

Then you start to see some progress and that progress builds motivation.

The alternative is to set an enormous goal and see very little progress, which kills your motivation.

 

Ready To Take The Next Step?

 

If you’re looking for a leadership development programme or short workshop, book a discovery call with me here.

To enquire or book me to speak at your next conference or event, email my PA, Lucy Davidson on lucy@ben-morton.com.

For 1-2-1 coaching and mentoring, join my waitlist here. I’ll let you know as soon as I have time in my diary to work with you.

Your coach,

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash