Do Goals Make Sense?

When you hear the word goals, what pops into your head? New Year’s resolutions never kept? The acronym SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time- bound)? Do you think about all the things that you’ve been wanting to do but seem impossible to do with limited time and energy? Do goals energize you or depress you?

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with goals. In the past I’ve dutifully made my New Year’s resolutions in January and like most people, by March they are a distant memory. I’m a huge fan of to-do lists and get a great deal of satisfaction crossing things off of them, but don’t typically make long-term goals that I break down into smaller goals that end up on my day-to-day schedule or to-do lists.

So I was very intrigued that many articles I’ve read lately have encouraged me not to focus on goals, with the theory that goals do not promote happiness. Here are some of my findings that you may find interesting.

Minimalism gurus Leo Babauta from Zen Habits and the Minimalists both argue that goals cause more stress and disappointment than they are worth, especially when you don’t meet them at all, or keep procrastinating and putting them off. They believe that achievement and growth are still possible without goals, and doesn’t make you complacent to live a life where you achieve nothing. As Leo Babauta puts it:

“What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.”

In his book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, Tal Ben-Shahar has a more moderate approach to goals. He states that goals are essential to happiness and that commitment to reaching a goal helps us “demonstrate faith in ourselves, in our ability to achieve an envisioned future. We create our reality rather than react to it.”

However, as Ben-Shahar explains, research shows that the attainment of a goal only leads to a “temporary spike in our levels of well-being” and we often return to being as happy or unhappy as we were prior to reaching the goal. So what do we do? We focus on the journey rather than the destination. We appreciate what we learn along the way, and enjoy the process. “The primary purpose of having a goal- a future purpose- is to enhance enjoyment of the present.”

Finally, James Clear recently wrote an article about focusing on systems rather than goals. In other words, focus on the process that gets you to the goal rather than the goal itself. This is in line with Ben-Shahar’s findings as well. As Clear puts it, “Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.”

For me, as an obliger that relies on external accountability, I think I identify most with Ben-Shahar’s opinion that goals are important, but focusing on making progress (with the support of others who can hold me accountable, in my case) is the best road to happiness.

How do you feel about goals? Do you think the removal of goals all together, or focusing on the journey rather than the attainment of the goal itself makes you a happier person? Leave a comment!