Book Goals! by Brian Tracy

Why People Don't Set Goals

Here is a good question: If goal setting is automatic, why is it

that so few people have clear, written, measurable, time-bounded

goals that they work toward each day? This is one of the great

mysteries of life. I believe there are four reasons why people don’t set

goals.

Goals Aren’t Important

First, most people don’t realize the importance of goals. If you

grow up in a home where no one has goals, or you socialize with a

group where goals are neither discussed nor valued, you can very

easily reach adulthood without knowing that your ability to set and

achieve goals will have more of an effect on your life than any other

skill. Look around you. How many of your friends or family

members are clear and committed to their goals?

They Don’t Know How

The second reason that people don’t have goals is because they

don’t know how to set them in the first place. Even worse, many

people think that they already have goals, when in reality, what they

actually have are a series of wishes or dreams like, “Be happy,” or

“Make a lot of money,” or “Have a nice family life.”

But these are not goals at all. They are merely fantasies that are

common to everyone. A goal however is something distinctly

different from a wish. It is clear, written and specific. It can be

quickly and easily described to another person. You can measure it,

and you know when you have achieved it, or not.

It is possible to take an advanced degree at a leading university

without ever receiving one hour of instruction on goal setting. It is

almost as if the people who determine the educational content of our

schools and universities are completely blind to the importance of

goal setting in achieving success later in life. And of course, if you

never hear about goals until you are an adult, as I experienced, you

will have no idea how important they are to everything you do.

The Fear of Failure

The third reason that people don’t set goals is because of the

fear of failure. Failure hurts. It is emotionally and often financially

painful and distressing. Everyone has had failure experiences from

time to time. Each time, they resolve to be more careful next time and

avoid failure experiences in the future. They then make the mistake

of unconsciously sabotaging themselves by not setting any goals at

which they might fail. They end up going through life functioning at

far lower levels than are truly possible for them.

The Fear of Rejection

The fourth reason that people don’t set goals is because of the

fear of rejection. People are afraid that if they set a goal and are not

successful, others will criticize or ridicule them. This is one of the

reasons why, when you begin to set goals, you should keep your

goals confidential. Don’t tell anyone. Let them see by your results

and achievements what you have accomplished, but don’t tell them

in advance. What they don’t know can’t hurt you.

Join The Top Three Percent

Mark McCormack in his book What They Don’t Teach You In The

Harvard Business School tells of a Harvard study conducted between

1979 and 1989. In 1979, the graduates of the MBA program at

Harvard were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your

future and made plans to accomplish them?” It turned out that only

3% of the graduates had written goals and plans. 13% had goals, but

they were not in writing. Fully 84% had no specific goals at all, aside

from getting out of school and enjoying the summer.

Ten years later, in 1989, they interviewed the members of that

class again. They found that the 13% who had goals, but which were

not in writing were earning on average twice as much as the 84% of

students who had had no goals at all. But most surprisingly, they

found that the 3% of graduates who had clear, written goals when

they left Harvard were earning, on average, ten times as much as the

other 97% of graduates all together. The only difference between the

groups was the clarity of the goals they had for themselves when

they started out.

No Road Signs

The importance of clarity is easy to understand. Imagine

arriving on the outskirts of a large city and being told to drive to a

particular home or office in that city. But here’s the catch. There are

no road signs and you have no map of the city. In fact, all you are

given is a very general description of the home or office that is your

goal. Here is the question: How long do you think it would take you

to find a home or office in a city without a road map or without road

signs?

The answer is: Probably your whole life. If you ever did find

the home or office, it would be very much a matter of luck. And sadly

enough, this is the way most people live their lives.

The average person starts life traveling through an unmapped

and uncharted world with no road map. This is the equivalent of

starting off in life with no goals and plans. He or she simply figures

things out as he or she goes along. Often, ten or twenty years of work

will go past and the individual is still broke, unhappy in his or her

job, dissatisfied with his or her marriage and making little progress.

And still, he or she goes home every night and watches television,

wishing and hoping that things would get better. But they seldom do.

Not by themselves.