When It’s Time to Let a Goal Go
Posted February 20th, 2012
Setting goals can be a potent way to help you succeed, to make progress. But, from time to time, it is also necessary to take a look at the goals you have set, to evaluate them, to see if they are still doable, and still what you want to do. Depending on your progress, you may need to modify your goals.
According to business consultant Dorie Clark, there are times when you need to even consider abandoning a goal. And she gives several reasons why sometimes the best course of action is to give up on a goal.
One reason is when pursuing a goal actually is hurting more than helping. Clark uses her own experience as an example. She set a goal of getting exercise early in the morning, before she began her workday. But instead of increasing her energy, this schedule left her tired and listless and affected her productivity. She was just not a morning person and she realized that this goal was doing more harm than good, so she shifted her workout time to the afternoon.
Another time to consider tossing a goal is when it interferes with other goals you have set. Clark uses the example of scheduling recreational time for yourself in your calendar in order to help balance your work with your life outside work. But when she did this, Clark said the stress of trying to maintain her scheduled recreational time interfered with her goal of finding a more balanced life. So she gave up trying to plan her free time, and became more spontaneous with it.
Sometimes, Clark says, it’s time to leave your goals behind when they no longer apply to the things you want to achieve. As an example, Clark cites the time she received an attractive job offer – it was the kind of job she would have killed for in her twenties or thirties, but now, because of her experience and time in life, it no longer held the kind of attraction it did for her younger self. She declined the offer.
Our lives change as we grow older and our goals change as well — it is no shame to give up a goal that just isn’t that meaningful for us anymore. What is important, Clark says, is to look at the reason for setting the goal – why you are doing it – to see if the goal is still important and still relevant.
Most of us are never adverse to the goal of “finding a great job.” If that’s one of your goals for 2012, contact a recruiter at Bayside Solutions. We can help you find new opportunities at some of the San Francisco area’s top employers. Contact us today!
