The Hidden Cost of Too Many Goals

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to The Hidden Cost of Too Many Goals.

As I write out these ideas and scripts, I don't work off a script. I work off what I'd call an index card that I've blown up so if I get off track, I can easily glance up and get back on track.

But when I write these things out, some of the things I write out to talk about really hit me hard, and this is one of them: The Hidden Cost of Too Many Goals.

I'm a huge believer in goals. I've got goals. I've got written goals.

I've had written goals for as long as I can remember. Probably for over 30 years now, I've had written goals.

I write them down, I look at them, I work on them, etc.

That's really the basis of almost every system that I share with you here on Your Life Systems.

And this one, the danger of having too many goals, has really hit me hard because I understand the true danger of having too many goals. That's what we're going to talk about today.

Before I share more about having too many goals, I really like to only have two or three big goals.

I'll have smaller goals, but I've learned in the past that sometimes I would have 10 or 12 big goals going on.

The problem with that is you end up, or at least I ended up, in a situation where, "Oh my gosh, I've got to get this done, this done, this done."

Instead of making good progress on one or two goals, I made almost no progress on any goals because I was trying to get a little bit done here and a little bit done there.

That's the danger of having too many goals.

So number one, goals are wonderful.

I think you should have goals, and I think you should use them in whatever way works best for you.

That's how I built my goal system, by finding out that I don't need to have 10 or 12 huge goals at one time.

I need to have one or two big goals that I can focus on and make real progress on before adding another big goal.

Again, I often will have one or two big goals, and then I'll have five or six secondary goals that I work on when I've already worked on the important goals for the day or the week or whatever.

I'm not telling you how many goals to have.

I'm telling you that often, if you have too many goals, you will make more progress by picking one or two big goals and focusing most of your time only on them.

Sometimes the fastest way to make progress is choosing fewer priorities.

So why does this matter?

For me, I'd overload myself or I'd get overwhelmed with too many, but I ended up making much more progress when I reduced it to one goal or two big goals.

Again, this is about you finding the system for goals that works best for you, not what works best for me.

Some people can literally have five big goals and make good progress on all of them.

If I was forced to, now that I have systems built in my life to help, I could do that.

I would learn that, okay, I've got five big goals. I need to get at least one small step on each goal every day, and I could do that.

But instead, when I focus on one or two big goals, instead of getting one small step on each of five, I can get two to five small steps, which equals a fairly big step most of the time, on each important goal every day.

A good example is when I started creating the Your Life Systems business that you're watching as part of this video today. This is part of my Your Life Systems business.

When I first started, I literally had pages written out.

I used legal pads. They're at least eight and a half by 11, maybe bigger.

Anyway, I had full pages of handwritten notes about what I wanted this to become and what I wanted this to grow to.

I spent a lot of time thinking about that because I learned I need to get my ducks in a row before I start if I want to get to the end product I want, or how I want the business to be in a year or five years.

So I wrote everything down.

In building a business like this, there are many big things that need to fall into place eventually.

After I had them all out, instead of trying to work on all of them at once, I said, "What's the most important thing to get to the next step?"

Then I focused, it's easy to say 100%, but let's say I focused 90% on the one thing that's going to move this to the next level.

I didn't start the business by recording videos.

That was not the first step.

The first step was getting other things in place first.

So I focused on the first step first. Once I got it where it needed to be, then I looked at what's the next step that gets me closer to my one-year, five-year goal.

Instead of being overwhelmed, and it would have been easy to be overwhelmed, I broke it down.

At some points in my life, if I wrote out three or four pages on something and there were, say, 10 big goals within there, it would have been easy for me to be overwhelmed.

But now I know how my mind works, and I knew what I needed to do. That's what I did.

I broke it down. Instead of 10 big goals, I was like, "What's the number one goal that I need to do before I can get to big goal number two?"

Every goal competes for time and attention.

Adding a second or a third can distract you from your big goal.

Be very aware of that. Be careful of that.

Every goal competes for time and attention.

More goals often create less progress instead of more.

What I like to do is have goals in four areas of my life.

I'm not saying they're all big goals because I told you I usually try to focus on one or two big goals at a time.

That doesn't mean I don't have goals.

I have goals for four areas of my life: business goals, health goals, family goals, and faith goals.

Business goals are what most people focus on and what I focus on a lot.

But I usually only have one big business goal at a time.

I might have a secondary business goal, but one big business goal.

So when I'm planning my days or my weeks, I know what I need to do to advance the one big business goal. That's a priority.

I also have health goals.

I have goals that I know I need to do every day and every week for my health.

That's definitely a priority. Your health is a priority.

At certain times, it's probably the most important priority.

But I build a system so that my health goals are automatically taken care of by the systems I put in place.

I'm going to do this every day.

It's not a question. It gets done. It's part of my system.

So therefore, I've already handled that goal. I don't have to think about it. I know what I'm going to do.

That means I can focus more on my main business goal.

Family goals.

Family's important. I have family goals.

I've already scheduled out what I'm going to do for my family or with my family.

I've already decided.

I decide once a week or twice a week what's going on with that.

So that doesn't take mental energy away from my big business goal.

Same thing with my faith goals.

I already know what I'm going to do this week.

So it doesn't take the mental energy away. I decide once.

Then most of my daily work focus can be on work, the business goals.

So remember, more goals often create less progress.

Focus creates momentum.

I talk a lot about momentum.

What happens if I told you I had five different big goals or 10 different big goals and I tried to get one little thing done on each one every day?

I could make small progress that way.

But imagine if I focus all that energy on one big goal.

That creates momentum.

And momentum's important, or at least it is in me accomplishing big goals.

The more I focus on one big goal, the better my momentum and confidence become, which helps me get to the goal.

What you need to do is decide what matters most right now.

When I talked to you about creating the Your Life Systems business, the business is not just me. There are a lot of parts to it. I'm just the face of that business right now.

But I didn't work on all 10 big things.

I decided what matters most right now.

And that's my main goal.

So in closing, success isn't always about doing more.

Sometimes it's about choosing less and focusing more on less stuff.

Too many goals can slow progress instead of accelerating it.

That's the hidden cost of too many goals.

Break down your goals.

Focus on one or two big goals and get further along with those than when you divide your attention.

I'm Wes. Thanks for being with me.

This is Your Life Systems. Subscribe, and we'll see you next time.

What's Next?

·        Write down the big goals you're actively pursuing right now.

·        Identify which one or two would create the most meaningful progress if they received most of your attention.

·        Move lower-priority goals into a secondary list instead of treating everything as urgent.

·        Use systems and pre-decisions for recurring priorities that don't need constant mental attention.

·        Ask regularly: What matters most right now?

·        Protect enough focused time to build momentum on the answer.

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