You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for. Ted Turner.
There’s a problem with “reaching for the stars” that self-help brokers won’t tell you. Beyond the star you’re reaching for, there’s always another star.
It’s not that goals are bad. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi noted that having a clear goal state is one of the essential components of Flow– the state of mind where you get caught up in an experience and lose track of time.
But applying goals to your life as a whole can backfire very fast. Having a goal for the year, or even for the fiscal quarter, can set you up for fear, hesitation, and failure. For instance, if your goal for the year is to sell 2x more widgets than last year, but the invention of the snarfblat dramatically undercuts demand for widgets, then you are headed for failure, no matter how hard you work on your goal.
According to neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff, large-scale personal goals require controlled, linear outcomes to succeed. But everyday life is anything but linear. In her book Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World Le Cunff argues that curiosity combined with a steady routine of small trial-and-error experiments will get you closer to satisfaction and accomplishment faster than any goal.
The repeated trials of your pact provide you with more reliable information to make decisions. Furthermore, each iteration is likely to be more successful, fueling growth in its own right regardless of whether you opt to extend your pact beyond its initial period.
In the end you might discover that you’re just not interested in stars after all. You’d rather nurture small plants and help things grow. Getting your hands dirty is where it’s at. And a series of tiny experiments will get you there faster than “setting goals beyond your reach.”
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