by Elizabeth Spann Craig, @elizabethscraig
I read an interesting article recently, “What Setting Small Goals is Costing You,” from author and publisher Michael Hyatt. I think it interested me because it had such a radically-different point of view from mine. But it was onethat gave me food for thought.
In it, he said:
“Setting small, unchallenging goals is one of the five blunders I cover. I call it “sailing too close to shore.” We tend to set small goals because we’re unaware of our own inherent fear of loss. We don’t want to risk much. But there’s a direct correlation between low risk and low achievement. The greatest achievements are waiting on the other side of discomfort.”
He gave a couple of pretty compelling examples to support his position.
I could see where he was coming from. But for me, it’s totally the opposite.
For me, slow and steady wins the race. I’ve had 25 books published, but this has been over nine years. I set small goals that I can easily achieve. These small goals have made it possible for me to build a daily habit of writing and have helped to keep me motivated over the long-haul.
When I was first starting out and seriously writing, I purposefully set my writing goal as low as I could. I had a toddler in the house and a kindergartener. I set a goal of writing for 5-15 minutes a day. In less than a year, I had a book.
Knowing that I could accomplish my goals under challenging circumstances gave me confidence in my ability to push through, just like finishing a project (as opposed to stalling out or starting a completely different manuscript) gave me confidence in following through and trusting my ability to deliver.
But back to Michael Hyatt’s point of view. He does make some good points. For me, though, I think I’ll incorporate them differently. It is important to stretch oneself. But I’d rather that be a weekly extra goal instead of a daily challenging goal. Since I nearly always hit my daily goal, maybe that is an indication that I need to re-evaluate how much I’m expecting of myself.
But let’s face it. Some days just stink from start to finish. The kids are sick, the dog needs to go to the vet, you thought there was chicken in the freezer, but there wasn’t. I think on days like those, it’s best to still hit our usual goal, maintain our habit, and not feel disappointed in our performance.
What kinds of goals do you set? Do you stretch yourself or set small, attainable goals?
The benefits of small, attainable goals: Share on XPhoto on VisualHunt
I agree with you, Elizabeth. I think setting challenging goals sets us up for failure. I, too, set small, manageable goals in the beginning of 5 – 10 minutes and I, too, ended up with books. I think each person needs to find their own way with these things and what works for each person will be slightly different.
That’s so true. I always feel like the tortoise and the hare with some of the writers I read about. :)
I understand what he means, because if all one has are tiny daily goals, that’s not a stretch. But most people have bigger goals and those will make us stretch.
Like you, I’d rather hit at least one goal a day, otherwise I’d start to feel really discouraged.
That’s the way I’d feel…like it was just more writing piling up on top of me.
I did stretch myself during NaNo. I didn’t actually sign up for it, but I doubled my personal goals for a month. It felt good, but I was glad when the challenge stopped, ha!
I’ve got big goals in my life, and early at that, related to education, jobs, and establishing a family. I realize now that pace may have something to do with why I was so run down. I am much happier now with my smaller, consistent goals that I’m already seeing benefits from (namely, 80k words since November).
That should be “achieved big goals”…sigh
I didn’t even notice, ha! I’ve switched to decaf and that may be presenting some problems… :)
80K since November is huge! And you’re so right that there are other, sometimes more pressing, goals that we have in our personal lives, too. That’s when a small goal really helps keep us from getting overwhelmed.
I couldn’t possibly agree more with you, Elizabeth. I’ve found this to be the case when I was working on my Ph.D., writing novels, cleaning the house, getting ready to move, etc… Any major task is daunting, but only if you let it be that way. If you break it down into small, attainable goals, you can accomplish it. I tell my students that, and (hopefully), they tell theirs.
It makes my head hurt to think of working on a Ph.D at the same time as writing a book! My hat is off to you!
The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. :)
I read the post you’re referring to by Michael Hyatt and I came away with the same mixed feelings you did. In December, I sat down and set my major writing and marketing goals for 2018. In January, life got in the way, in a big way, and I had to adjust them. I did away with the grand thoughts and left in only what I knew I could manage, come hell or high water, as my mother always likes to say. I then took those things and broke them down into manageable daily writing goals. So far, so good.
I feel like, by focusing on those daily small goals – sailing close to the shoreline – I’ll arrive at my destination, my bigger picture publishing goals, just fine.
I usually find Hyatt’s articles inspiring, but this time I just hit a wall somehow. I do want to challenge myself, but definitely not on a daily basis. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Hope February ends up being a better month for you! It sounds like you handled your rough January really really well
When my goals are big, whether realistically doable or doable if I stretch, I get fail. This may be due to “realistic” goals often forgetting my chronic health issues (suffice to say that I’m still unused to not getting yelled at or called lazy when coping with them).
But when I set microgoals, small and easily reachable, I end up surpassing them to a superlative degree, often even more than “stretch” goals I’d otherwise set—and with stretch goals, I rarely accomplish even as much as a microgoal.
I’m not the only person I know like this.
Thanks for this, Misti. That would be an even more frustrating article to read for someone struggling with a chronic health problem.
Like you, I frequently (not always) surpass my small goal. If I do, I make sure I resume the microgoal the next day (instead of giving myself a day off). And I never try and ‘catch up’ if I fail to meet my small goal. The goal is for that day only, and that limited focus really helps to keep me motivated.
Everything I’ve ever read (and I’ve read almost every self-help & success book out there) says set small, medium, and big goals. We need those little ones for a sense of accomplishment and to keep us moving forward.
The ‘medium goal’ part of that is interesting to me and makes a lot of sense. It always seems like extremes with writing goals…huge goals (NaNoWriMo) and small ones. A medium goal could be set very flexibly (by the end of the month, write 3 extra pages).
I think the problem is that some people associate small goals with low risk. I’m a big believer in having lots of small goals that, when executed correctly, lead to a big overall success at the end. The final, large goal may be high risk, but that doesn’t mean all the small goals that led up to it have to be high risk too.
I think you’re right. Setting a goal to write a book is totally a high risk endeavor, but that doesn’t mean that the daily goals that help us meet the big goal is low risk.
I long ago put Hyatt in the ignore box, so perhaps I’m prejudiced here.
The power of small wins is irrefutable. Check out anything written by Teresa Amabile.
Rosanne Bane (http://BaneOfYourResistance.com/) explains in her book the solid brain science that we should have firm commitments, and that they should be so small that reaching them is a doddle, and that we should also have goals that stretch us, but which we’re not committed to. In that way we can stretch when it’s good without teaching ourselves to fail by constantly falling short.
It’s popular to tell people to shoot for the moon and even if you miss you’ll land in the stars. It makes good poetry and sells seminars. But brain science says that a goal you can reach is infinitely more motivating than one you can’t, plain and simple.
Those “goals” Rosanne talks about—I call them dreams. I have huge dreams. I take baby steps all the time toward those dreams. If I didn’t have a bright light on my horizon, what would I aim for? But delaying happiness, contentment, the feeling of accomplishment, until “someday” when I get there? Nonsense.
(I always forget to turn on comments.)
I like Rosanne Bane’s term ‘commitment’ in reference to a manageable daily task. That diction puts it in a less-ephemeral category than ‘goal’ and with other tasks that we can’t/won’t ignore.
There’s just something about religiously knocking out a small, doable goal each day that makes sitting down in front of the computer much easier. That feeling of accomplishment, as you put it. It’s what keeps me driving forward.
Hi Elizabeth … I’d rather start in the shallow end and move towards the deep end, then I can get out, dive in to start again … slow and sure would suit me – cheers Hilary
The shallow end looks pretty good to me, too! :) Nice analogy. Have a happy weekend, Hilary!
I agree, Elizabeth. I think too-big goals set you up failure.
It’s good to know I’m not alone! :)
I like the point you make about “slow and steady wins the race.” I have found that pushing myself really, really hard to meet arbitrary deadlines (for example, racing to write, revise and submit short stories as I learn about anthology submission deadlines) can boost productivity in the short term (say, a year or two). I get a LOT of writing done. However, it’s exhausting, I find, to not know when there will be a break. Over time, I find I just get sick of writing, and when I get burned out my productivity takes a nose dive.
On the other hand, I had a goal last year to write, revise and submit a novel manuscript. To be honest I’d never written one that quickly, and taken it through revisions, like that before! But I worked backwards from the ultimate goal, figured out what word count I could manage per day in drafting it and… it worked. I also didn’t burn out.
As a parent, I value manageable daily (or weekly) goals. Your time isn’t always your own. But a little bit, over time, really adds up.
At that pace, even something we enjoy can seem relentless. Good point about how discouraging it can be not knowing when there’ll be a break.
Burnout stinks. I’ve only been burned out once or twice (back when I was writing a couple of different series for Penguin, with competing deadlines…I wouldn’t have done it to myself, otherwise). It’s a nasty, drained feeling. I was making all sorts of mistakes, too: I’d have accidental guest appearances from one series to the other.
Flexibility is so important as a writing parent, I think. Kids throw curveballs all the time. With a small goal, we can fit in writing at odd times of the day and in bits and pieces if necessary.
I kept falling into the “big goal” trap, and I knew something had to change. Small goals feel more reachable and less guilt-riddled if things don’t go right. Consistency is key, though, as is asking what is standing in your way. When I wrote my dissertation my kids were babies, and the only way I was able to get it done was to change my routine. I got up at 5am before hubby went to work and wrote for 2 hours before he left. I wasn’t always brilliant at 5am, LOL, but it eventually got done! Parenthood and professional goals are always going to butt heads. By the way, I (successfully) defended my dissertation on a Halloween morning (ages ago), then had to run home to finish pinning my oldest’s Halloween costume, haha.
That is just classic parenthood there!! Writing at 5 a.m. each day, and then defending a dissertation and pinning a Halloween costume in the same day! That is awesome! :)