Why effort based goal help to achieve lasting behaviour changes

Consider setting goals in which you commit on putting in a specific effort, instead of achieving a certain outcome

We fail many goals we set because we are too focussed on the end result and not enough on the process required to achieve that goal. Setting a goal that focusses on an outcome, is difficult to achieve because we rarely have control over all the variables involved.

Weather, pandemic, health, are all variables that we can not fully control and therefore can easily derail our efforts to achieve a specific outcome. Outcome based goals implicitly create a pass/fail result on the finish line: You either achieve the goal, or you don't. You win or you loose.

Additionally, our inner critic can be quick to frame any outcome negatively. If you achieved your goal, it was not challenging enough. If you did not achieve your goal, you are a failure.

Lets look at setting goals around input instead. Commit to putting in a specific effort in order to achieve the desired outcome.

I have moved this post to the new TryingIsBeing.com website! Please continue reading there.

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash