Why Traditional Goal Setting Doesn't Always Work and What To Do Instead

Over my 15 years of entrepreneurship, I’ve dabbled in many different goal-setting frameworks. The ones I am most familiar with are:

• SMART: (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals
• BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals
• EOS Rocks: Entrepreneurial Operating System quarterly goals

Some other goals setting models I’ve come across are:

• OKR: Objectives and Key Results 
• HARD: (Heartfelt, Animated, Required, Difficult) goals
• WOOP: (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) goals
• The OGSM model: Objective, Goals, Strategies, and Measures
• Warren Buffett’s “2 list” strategy
• Backward goal setting

At their core, these all have overlapping elements, using different language to describe similar concepts: Articulate a clear outcome and break it down into its component parts.

My partners and I were always good at short-term goal setting, identifying areas that were a challenge and then addressing them. But it was the long-term goals that we could never really figure out. Dana and I set many SMART goals and tried to have several different BHAGs. They were often discussed at a strategy meeting, written down, and not looked at again until the next strategy meeting. At which point we delighted or lamented in reaching (or at least making progress toward them)…or not.😅

Don’t get me wrong, we met or exceeded many long-term goals, but not expressly because we had set them. And, of course, we wildly missed many as well.

Truthfully, the long-term goals never felt like they meant anything. They seemed, in many ways, arbitrary. We set many of them because we were told that is what “successful” businesses did. Over the years and our myriad of experiences, it became increasingly apparent that traditional long-term business goals were not motivators for us.

To be clear, these goal-setting frameworks are not necessarily bad. Like any tool, they have pros and cons and can be incredibly valuable in certain contexts. These approaches just never really clicked for us. 

Here are a few possible explanations for why they didn’t work and what to do instead!

Four reasons why traditional goal setting doesn't always work

1. Many goals are for outcomes outside your control

If you think about many of the big achievements that are often lauded as markers of success, like awards, best-seller lists, winning a championship, getting top grades, or even acquiring a certain number of new customers… those achievements depend on many outside factors and other people’s decisions and actions. They are things you have no control over and often can’t influence in any way.

“The fixation on external results that are not in your control carries a hidden cost. It consumes a significant amount of time and energy that would be better spent doing things that actually generate those results.”[1]
- Ryan Holiday of the Daily Stoic and author of Disciple is Destiny

2. Goodhart’s Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

It makes sense to set goals with specific parameters; you are more likely to achieve them because how do you know if you have reached a vague goal? But what about more qualitative goals? 

From life coach Pamela Hobart,

“When overused, SMART goals run the risk of turning us into short-sighted, robotic, box-checking task-completers when what we want may be closer to its opposite.” [2] 

Dan Shipper, CEO and co-founder of Every,  likens it to

“When machine learning algorithms over-optimize for a goal, they tend to lose sight of the big picture, leading to what researchers call “overfitting.” In practical terms, when we overly focus on perfecting a certain process or task, we become excessively tailored to the task at hand, and unable to handle variations or new challenges effectively.” [3] 

The risk of the more traditional goal-setting frameworks like SMART goals is in being so focused on the target that you miss avenues of improvement, better outcomes, interesting experiences, and countless opportunities you hadn’t considered. 

3. Linear thinking

More traditional goal-setting centers around defining a target and mapping out the steps required to reach it. It makes sense; you decide what you want to do and then figure out how to do it. The challenge with this approach is that it sets up a binary measure for success: Either you achieve it, or you don’t. It’s either a success or failure.

The direction you go is linear, which can set you up for disappointment since any outcome other than the one you set out to achieve is considered a failure. It doesn't allow for course changes or leave room for unexpected outcomes, which can often be even better than you imagined.

4. The arrival fallacy

What’s worse is that even if you achieve your goal, you can feel disappointed! This is called the arrival fallacy.

The arrival fallacy is the false assumption that once you reach a goal, you will experience enduring happiness [4]. It’s the deeply ingrained feeling that once you get things like a promotion, start your family, make a certain amount of money, or get to a specific revenue number, then you will finally be happy. 

When you do reach that goal, and it doesn’t fix your unhappiness, many people feel depressed and hopeless.

Does that mean I should just stop setting goals altogether?

Absolutely not! As Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs, shares in her article, The Paradox of Goals, goals are built into “our very biological makeup. All living species are goal-oriented in nature. In fact, this is the key difference between living organisms and nonlife: all organisms have goals [...] We are goal-oriented creatures. We need a sense of purpose to drive our actions, to survive and to thrive.” [5]

So, what should we do if the more traditional frameworks for setting goals are not working?

Instead of goals, try growth loops

As Le Cunff points out, the two primary ingredients for a goal are the will (motivation) and the way (the plan). These work for simple goals that are easy to define (which many of the frameworks listed above would be appropriate for), but they fall apart when the everyday complexities of life get thrown into the mix. She asks,

“What if we don’t know where we are and where we want to go? What happens when the will and the way are unclear?”

Le Cunff suggests adjusting how you approach your goals and thinking of them instead as growth loops. She describes them like this:

 “Instead of a linear scale progressing from a present state to a desired outcome (the classic “up and to the right”), goals should be conceived as cyclical [...] First, we commit to an action. Then, we execute the target behavior. Finally, we learn from our experience and adjust our future actions accordingly. Each cycle adds a layer of learning to how we understand ourselves and the world around us. Instead of an external destination, our aspirations become fuel for transformation. We don’t go in circles, we grow in circles. Goals turn into growth loops.”

From uncertainty to learning cycles

These cycles help relieve some of the anxiety that comes with future uncertainty. Instead of endlessly focusing on a nebulous future finish line, “achievement is simply the continuation of the learning cycle itself.” 

The scientific method follows the same approach: form a hypothesis, make a prediction, conduct an experiment, and analyze the results. Then, you adjust and try again based on what you found. Cooking is similar: Follow a recipe, taste it, and the next time you make it, add or remove ingredients, taste it, and adjust each time until you get a version you like.

It’s a way to stay flexible and approach your aspirations with curiosity. The inevitable challenges are less jarring because you can look at them with openness and feel more free to think about them creativity.  Success happens as you go instead of being dependent on a specific outcome.

How to design growth loops

Growth loops, as defined in Le Cunff’s article, happen in four simple steps:

1. Pact

Choose an action you want to commit to. It needs to be: 

• Purposeful (something you care about)
• Actionable (something you can do today)
• Contextual (based on your current situation)
• Trackable (a yes/no action)

2. Act

Do it! Keep at it “long enough so you can collect sufficient data. This requires monitoring your progress (a good old habit tracker can do the job) and taking care of your mental health so you can maintain motivation and momentum.” 

My favourite habit tracker is Streaks!

3. React

Once you have enough information (which depends on the nature of your pact), review the data, reflect regularly on your progress and adapt.

• “Is your current pact having a positive impact on areas of your life you care about, such as health, well-being, or relationships? 
• How does it feel to perform this action?
• Is it energizing or draining? 
• Do you want to keep on going with this pact for one more cycle, or should you tweak it or abandon it?”

4. Impact

Repeat the first three steps! You will start to see its impact “on areas that feed into the ultimate goal: living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.”

It’s not a simple line from point A to B but a constant loop that allows you to reflect, learn, and adjust over and over. Those adjustments often take you in unexpected directions, but that’s ok (even desired) because you’ve allowed yourself that flexibility. 

Simone Stolzoff, author of The Good Enough Job, says, 

“For better or worse, achieving your goals shows you that no material accomplishment will fundamentally alter who you are. [...] The greatest risk of a goal-oriented life is that we remove ourselves from our present experience. If we are always striving to grab the next rung on the career ladder or to achieve the next life milestone, we can miss out on where we are today. Lasting fulfillment is the result of presence, not checking off boxes from some achievement rubric.” [6]

When you approach goal setting using growth loops, you allow yourself the space to explore and learn, and “success becomes a form of self-cultivation—the development of personal wisdom and inner strength based on our experiences.” It becomes foundational to the intentional life; instead of checking boxes, you get to enjoy the moments and experiences as they happen.

Think about some of the goals you have set for yourself recently that you are struggling with. What do they look like if they are modified to growth loops?

Get in touch if you want help setting your growth loops for the new year!