My goals are now in alignment with a strategy that prioritizes the journey as well as the destination. But we live in a world today where ambition is quantified — in the domain of our careers, fitness, money, and so forth. Society encourages us to, think big, and set beyond reach targets, cause that will make us happy. But many people burn out and even get lost when they concentrate on the result when it is the journey that matters. Research found that individuals who anchor their self-worth to achieving big goals tend to experience anxiety, doubt, and dissatisfaction when they fall short of their expectations. We don’t have to depend on end goals; the process can be a far more stable and gratifying experience.
This post explains why the classic method of goal-setting might be holding us back and what we can do to reframe this to focus on the process, which will improve motivation, continued action, and our overall well-being.
The Problem with Traditional Goal-Setting
1. Goals Are Often Unrealistic and Lead to Frustration
Shooting for the stars and pursuing meaningful, big goals is often what we are encouraged to do. This can be inspirational, but also disheartening when our goals are a long way from our current project or stage. If goals are unrealistic it can make you feel that failure is personal, which breeds frustration and loss of confidence.
An entrepreneur might have a goal of one million dollars in first-year business, for example. Though it’s good to have hope, such anticipation can easily lead one to become discouraged, if they don’t take into account: market conditions, competitive landscape, or cash limitations. When the goals are set too high, one can fail and give up all effort, instead of taking them step by step.
Rather than attempting to achieve something ambitious, you should divide this up into smaller, more achievable milestones. That way, you can break it up into measurable chunks and have something to celebrate along the way, which can reinforce motivation.
2. The Trap of Continuous Escalation
When someone achieves a goal — people often suddenly feel the inclination to seek the next, bigger goal. Even though these may sound like productive mindsets, they set the stage for a vicious cycle of constant escalation in which happiness is perpetually postponed until the next goal is achieved.
Take, for example, someone who wants to lose 10 pounds. Once they get to that goal, they may feel briefly content, but they immediately set a new goal to drop another 10 pounds. They start up yet another process and begin writing to a buffer again, never learning to enjoy their golden runs. And this relentless chasing after larger and larger goals can lead to a state of chronic dissatisfaction and burnout.
Instead, focus on the process — relish healthy eating and daily exercise — so that you sustain a healthy lifestyle instead of a constant pursuit of the next number on the scale.
3. The Psychological Burden of Loss Aversion
Loss aversion refers to the fact that we fear losing something we have accomplished more than we value getting something new. Individuals become fixated on preserving their success instead of enjoying it when they eventually achieve a goal.
For instance, when an athlete wins a championship, they are under intense pressure to repeat that victory, which creates stress that detracts from the joy of success. The happiness of having accomplished something is overtaken by the fear of failure, which in turn breeds anxiety and kills your desire to perform.
Making it process-oriented instead of results-oriented allows people to find fulfillment in effort instead of accomplishment. This lightens the psychological weight of loss aversion and more room to enjoy daily activities.
4. Goals Can Be Too Rigid and Stifle Growth
The obsession with goal setting: People get too focused on the end goal and they fail to reroute if necessity dictates. Dogged determination toward one specific outcome can obscure other opportunities and smother creativity.
An employee working toward promotion, for example, might be so focused on that outcome that they overlook other valuable career options or fail to develop a wide-ranging skill set. If they fall short of the promotion, it may reflect on them as a failure; however, they could have sought out alternate routes that may have been more gratifying.
Abandoning rigid goal-setting in favor of a more flexible, process-oriented mindset will help people be attentive to unexpected opportunities that align with their values and strengths.
5. Goals Create a Success-or-Failure Mentality
Typical goal-setting contributes to an all-or-nothing mindset: You either hit your goals (success) or fall short (failure). This kind of black-and-white thinking ignores the hard work and learning that contribute to progress along the way.
For instance, a student who set a goal of getting a perfect score on a test may feel upset when they end up getting 90% instead. They take their hard work and effort, and instead of acknowledging it, they see this as a failure. This frame of mind leads to reduced motivation and dissuades individuals from repeatedly making efforts going forward.
By emphasizing the process — things like studying consistently for a test, learning what went wrong on an exam, and absorbing knowledge — individuals can appreciate how they are improving without the burden of one narrow success or failure.
Shifting the Focus: Process-Oriented Goals
Emphasizing the Journey Over the Destination
“My goals are at this point in” a mindset that values the process more than the result. This highlights the daily habits, skills development, and incremental progress, rather than a final destination. This mindset may enable you to feel happier reporting progress and also mitigate the stress of rigid goals.
So let’s say someone sets a goal of “I want to speak fluent Spanish in 6 months”, instead of focusing on achieving the result now, they can focus on actions like speaking every day, talking along the way, and having fun. This outlook makes the process itself worthwhile, even when fluency takes longer than you anticipate.
Developing Sustainable Habits
In the long run, this will achieve their sustainable habits and bring them closer to long-term success. They don’t get bogged down with some desired end goal, they devise routines that cause improvements to happen.
An individual who writes 500 words a day, eventually writes a book without any external pressure caused by deadlines. It allows me to stay consistent, enjoy the process, and master the craft.
Cultivating a Growth Mindset
A process-oriented approach is consistent with the tenets of a growth mindset—the idea that ability is something that can be fostered through effort and learning. Shifting from an outcome like a goal to a process focuses on the journey over the destination so people are more likely to take on challenges, strive past them, and learn from the failures along the way.
For example, an entrepreneur who experiences failure in their business can learn from the experience, grow their strategies, and build their resilience instead of viewing the challenges as failures.
Discovering Happiness in the Present
When the goal is an outcome far off in the future, people tend to postpone their happiness until they reach their (often arbitrary) target. Focusing on the process makes the daily grind pleasurable, and no longer is there a need to suppress joy for some future goal.
Indeed, when we do something simply for the joy of doing it, the thing itself becomes the goal.
Conclusion
“My goals now align” with a process-oriented style that cherishes sustained development, healthy habits, and personal satisfaction. Traditional goal-setting practices — with their unrealistic expectations, incessant pushing, fear of losing what we have, rigid dogma, and success-or-failure dichotomy — often result in frustration, burnout, and dissatisfaction. By prioritizing the process over the outcome, we can fill our lives with even more motivation, flexibility, and overall happiness.
If you focus on the end, rather than the journey, you’ll find it hard to make meaningful progress. You can apply it to your career, fitness, education, and much more — when you focus on the process rather than the outcome, you find a more balanced, fulfilling, and sustainable approach to success.