“– Goals that are too specific often lead employees to develop such a narrow focus that they fail to recognize obvious problems unrelated to the target.
— Likewise, too many goals have what the authors consider an inappropriate time horizon.
— Workers with highly specific and ambitious targets will engage in risky practices in order to meet them (goals).
— Unethical behavior is one of the more obvious pitfalls of overly ambitious goal setting, with potentially some of the most catastrophic consequences.”
This is an excerpt from a article in Knowledge at Wharton. It had me thinking for a long time, whatever happened to the good old saying that you plan to fail if you fail to plan. That is a direct mention to setting goals in life. Though setting goals has been an integral part of our personal and work life, this article does present interesting thoughts on how to be reasonable while setting goals.
WE all have goals in our lives which motivate us to do something to get closer to them and that is what excites us to begin our day with enthusiasm and fervor. Some goals are reachable and make us content however some fall flat and those we might discard as bad ideas or unrealistic goals that were beyond our capabilities. Whatever the case may be, it is very important for us to revisit our goals often and revise them. To thrive in whatever we do we must adapt and change; and so must our goals.
Whatever their take on setting goals may be, I loved professor Maurice Schweitzer’s explanation and reference to “hedonic treadmill”; quoting from the article:
“The notion of a hedonic treadmill, says Schweitzer, “is that people never ‘get’ to where they are going. For example, people constantly pursue happiness, but don’t get there. They keep thinking that the next promotion, the new car, the salary raise, etc. will make them happy. They get the promotion, and that makes them happy for a time. Then they adapt and mistakenly think that it’s the next promotion that will make them happy.
“People may be motivated by goals. But these goals can crowd out intrinsic motivation, so they will need more goals to motivate them in the future.”
How often are you just in the wild race to attain your goals and have felt that you have never had the satisfaction of “being there”?