When Goal Setting Fails

You’ve heard it all before.   To reach your goal, you have to visualize it, create a dream board, you have to think positive thoughts and get excited about it.   But what if  you can visualize your goals, but try as you might,  you just don’t find yourself that motivated to reach your goal?

For as long as I can remember, I had a really hard time being driven by goals.   Don’t get me wrong, I always completed classroom assignments, and in graduate school I wrote research papers, and completed my thesis, but what motivated me was not having a paper or completed thesis.  For me,  I was driven by something entirely different:  problem solving.   Give me a problem to solve, and I will work tirelessly to find the optimal solution.   As for striving to reach a goal?  My response:  “Yeah, whatever!”

Shelle Rose Charvet, author and trainer at successstrategies.com says just 40% of people are motivated by goals.  Believe it or not, another 40% of people are motivated by solving problems, and everyone else is motivated by a combination of the two!

While goal seekers get the job done, problem solvers make sure the job gets done well.   We problem solvers can drive goal seekers a bit crazy, because we want them to consider the potential foibles, but each serves an important role!

So if you are like me, driven to solve problems, what is the best way to get things done?  Well I do have goals, but I break them up into problems that I can solve.   Alternatively, I might rephrase a goal into a problem.  So for example, if my goal is to clean my desk, the problem I’m solving is: “to clear the stress my messy desk is causing me”.  Or if I’m trying to complete my blog entry, my problem is “I need to get this done so that I’ll have time to play this weekend ”.

Therefore, if you too are driven to solve problems, then know what your goals are, and then rephrase them or break them down into problems to solve.  When I’m dragging my feet in reaching my goal, my favorite way to achieve my goals is to release subconscious barriers that get in my way.  If that interests you, listen to my blog talk radio interview on releasing subconscious barriers and contact me at 1855 ENERJOY for your free 1 hr consultation!

Do you find that setting goals isn’t very motivating?  What strategies do you use to get things done?  Please comment below: