Why Goal Setting is a Trap

If you’ve attended a success coaching seminar — and I’ve been to a few — have you ever noticed when the instructor asks the audience to write down their goals, the entire room collectively sighs with “Urrrgh”.

That’s because deep down, their mind knows that goal setting, and other forms of ‘frantic planning’, will probably limit a person’s purpose. I would even go so far as to say, it will probably and quite subtly wreck it. And the reason is very simple — planning activates fear.

Fear gets its power from the future and the past — worrying about all the ‘bad things’ that might happen in the future, based on all the ‘bad things’ that did happen in the past, assuming they’re all going to happen again, in any moment.

The more you plan, the more your mind is focused on the future, and the more chance fear will step in to worry about that future — concern, stress, anxiety, doubt, overcautiousness, etc. It’s all worry, and it does nothing good for your purpose. It’s negative goal setting — and if you fear it enough, you will eventually create those negative goals, which just gives you even more to worry about.

And because fear is probably reliving past drama at the same time — as in, “I’m worried about this, because it’s happened before in the past, and I don’t want it to happen again now” — the reality you create, will probably also have a bunch of stuff in it to regret as well.

Rinse and repeat into a limited purpose.

So what do you do?

Your purpose should be allowed to flow and unfold organically, with very little planning. There’s a very specific way to do that so it doesn’t activate fear — which we cover in our Level 2 workshop — but doing so frees you from future worry and past regret, and allows you to live a greater purpose with more success.

But if the idea of ‘living by the seat of your pants’ like that scares you — then that’s exactly the sort of fear we are talking about here. Fear doesn’t like spontaneity. It needs to frantically plan and fretfully micro-manage every tiny little detail — so nothing bad happens in the future, or you don’t relive bad mistakes from the past, or you’re prepared for any badness that might happen now. All of which again, is negative goal setting, and will create more badness in your purpose, so you have even more to worry about and regret.

The future is unknown, and will probably be very different to how you imagined it when it arrives. So, how can you plan for it? Sure, you can book ahead, set yearly goals, make appointments, etc. You can also have vision, goals, and a defined focus. But they’re all done in the moment. You look into the future — book it, plan it, set it — then come back to the present moment, and enjoy each moment.

Apart from that, you can’t possibly know what’s going to happen beyond the next few weeks, so you can only really plan your tasks for the next few weeks. The other tasks will become clearer to you as you make progress, things change, and opportunities arise. Doesn't that idea feel amazing, allowing, freeing?

In other words, let go and go with the flow. Most of your focus should be in the moment, living your purpose, step by step, one task at a time — with very little forward planning. The moment you stop trying to control the future outcome of everything — you’ll be really surprised at where your purpose will lead you. Most probably to a set of wonderful new circumstances, opportunities, and events that you never saw coming.

But if you rigidly plan, focusing on a predetermined set of outcomes — worrying about them like most people do — you’ll not only miss those greater opportunities, you’ll probably create worse ones. In many cases, fear will also soften your decisions, restrict your progress, limit your abilities, suppress your individuality, and squash your vision — while it’s there.

Over-planning will lock you in a mental jail of worry and regret. What’s really interesting is that the word “goal” is very close to "gaol", as in the Old English spelling of "jail".

The future is not here yet, and cannot be planned. The past is over can cannot be changed. The only true reality is now — this very moment, you reading this sentence.

That’s the only thing that’s real — everything else is a fantasy of the mind, and that’s where fear lives. But fear cannot run in the present moment.

Live now!