Q: Is there such a thing as a bad goal? And if so, what is the worst goal someone can set?
A: There most certainly are bad goals. I’m not sure what the absolute worst goal someone can set is, but being a politician might rank near the top.
On a more personal level, a good goal is one that gets you going, gets you moving forward – and a bad goal is one that causes you to freeze, to stop moving due to fear or feelings of overwhelm.
This leads to the question, can you turn a bad goal into a good one?
You most certainly can.
To illustrate, let’s say you’ve set a financial goal to 10X your income in one year. For one person in a million (or even less than that), this would be a great goal – but for everyone else, it’s a disastrous goal.
Some reading this might think I’m being “limited” or negative, but I’m telling you now, the positives of not having a 10X goal far outweigh the misinterpreted negatives.
10X goals are really bad goals – again, for almost everyone – because they’re overwhelming and paralyzing. The goal is too big, too soon.
Why not a 2X financial goal? That’ll get a lot more people moving forward and making progress than a 10X goal, I can assure you of that.
Some key factors I look at with goals are:
Does the goal move the ball forward?
Does the goal put points up on the board?
If not, then microtizing your goal – which I teach in Enter the Zen Zone, might just be the lifesaver and goal-crusher that’s been searching for you.
Matt Furey
