How many goals should we try to achieve?

[ULFBERHT]

Another bread and butter PD post here...

I've been gaining a little momentum lately. I've been doing daily affirmations and visualizations, studying every day (which is simultaneously moving me toward my life purpose), I've built a daily meditation habit (although I'm not seeing a ton of results), working hard at my day job, chipping away at household projects, exercising regularly, and making time for some reading outside of school. Over all I could use some improvement, but I'm at least moving and working, and that's good.

My question is: how many goals should we be trying to achieve at any given time? I've got a laundry list of habits I'd like to implement and goals I'd like to hit. My intuition is that by not sharpening my focus or finding a way to knock out many of these things at once, I'm not being as effective as I could be and spreading myself too thin.

In "How to fail at everything and still win big" Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, details in what has become one of my favorite self-help books ever, that goals are for losers and systems are for winners. The idea being that if you implement systems instead of chase goals, you achieve victory every time you work your system, as opposed to being in a perpetual state of defeat until you reach your goal. That idea is attractive to me. However, in the same book, Adams concedes that he's used visualization and affirmation of singular goals to achieve them and that there is some overlap between the systems model and the goals model. Overall it's left me a little uncertain about how to proceed.

So, for those of you who've got a nice track record of racking up some big victories, how did you do it? Did you work on several things at once or did you focus on one thing? How many goals is too many?

 

 

[CreamCat]

In my opinion, 3.

3 is a good magic number.

Anything you want to do someday, you can put in someday list.

Edited June 4, 2018 by CreamCat

[Ether]

You can achieve as many goals as you want. There is no limit.

[Nahm]

@ULFBERHT You’re creating all of it, yet identifying as the person who strives and achieves. It is as easy to create a sketch as it is an empire. Any variance envoked by that statement is falsity, and a call for self inquiry. A sleeper is a creator creating by default, snoring under the warm blankets of patterns conditioned, and conditions projected. 

[Joseph Maynor]

Find your Life Purpose first and then your goals will become much clearer.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Ananta]

@ULFBERHT I think it depends on the difficulty of each goal and if they are in different areas of daily living. Meaning, one goal could be some form of education that takes a lot of time each day and also going on a diet to lose 20 lbs. I don't see these in conflict with each other. However, if they were in conflict the difficulty would increase substantially.

When I went to nursing school (at 34) I had no idea how rough it was going to be ..and I mean rough! We started with a class of 43 students and 2 yrs later (RN program) there were only 10 of us left. I wasn't able to take on many other goals in those 2 yrs, at least not ones that would conflict with the priority goal which was getting my degree. 

But, in contrast, when I went to cosmetology school and EMT school m yrs earlier I didn't find either one all that hard. I sorta breezed right through them (not at the same time), so could take on many other goals  with no problem.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by Anna1

[ULFBERHT]

@Joseph Maynor I have a life purpose

@CreamCat I like your thinking. The mind likes things in 3's.

@Anna1 that's good thinking. Right now I have my goals separated into different domains. None of them really conflict with one another, and all of them are serving my life purpose. It's just that I have so many, and I'm so eager to tackle them, I don't want to spread myself too thin by getting goal ADD.

It's like this: I have fitness goals, work goals, study goals, spiritual goals, etc, all of which I'm working toward every day. None of them necessarily conflict because they're in different domains and each have somewhat different timelines. To clarify, would it be better if I just really hammered on one domain and blasted my progress, or is working on every domain a little bit every day a decent strategy?

[Ananta]

12 minutes ago, ULFBERHT said:

. To clarify, would it be better if I just really hammered on one domain and blasted my progress, or is working on every domain a little bit every day a decent strategy?

Well, it depends on the nature of the goal. If you're going to paint a bedroom, for instance,  then I'd say bang it out. If it's a spiritual goal, I'd say that same strategy is probably not going to work.

If it were me..I'd look to see which ones were bang em out goals and which were long term. Also, prioritize all goals, from least important to most, then sit with the lists and figure out a game plan from there.

 

[Joseph Maynor]

23 minutes ago, ULFBERHT said:

@Joseph Maynor I have a life purpose

@CreamCat I like your thinking. The mind likes things in 3's.

@Anna1 that's good thinking. Right now I have my goals separated into different domains. None of them really conflict with one another, and all of them are serving my life purpose. It's just that I have so many, and I'm so eager to tackle them, I don't want to spread myself too thin by getting goal ADD.

It's like this: I have fitness goals, work goals, study goals, spiritual goals, etc, all of which I'm working toward every day. None of them necessarily conflict because they're in different domains and each have somewhat different timelines. To clarify, would it be better if I just really hammered on one domain and blasted my progress, or is working on every domain a little bit every day a decent strategy?

Do daily practice on skills that will cause you to master and ace your life purpose.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[denydritz]

@ULFBERHT I agree with @Anna1, working on achieving goals depends on the nature of the goal. If you look at goals as projects that have timelines, then working on a single project until it's finished is more efficient than working on multiple projects at once. EXCEPT for when there is a 'waiting time' in one of your projects when you wait for an event or another person to reply, then you can work on another project while you wait.

If you're trying to build habits, then I believe it's more efficient to work on building one habit at a time. There are opinions that say a habit takes 30 days or 66 days until it becomes a habit, but I don't believe that completely. A habit becomes a habit when it does, not sooner or faster. The advantage of building one habit at a time is you can build a system that is 'customized' to create an environment where that habit can flourish without obstruction.

Personally, I prefer minimizing my goals to the most important and essentials ones. I feel that working on multiple projects at once requires a 'startup' cost whenever I change projects. The transition between projects consumes mental energy that would be better spent if I focus on one project and achieve a state of flow. I get more things done by working on less projects. But that's my case

Cheers!

[SFRL]

Depends on the size of the goals really. 

My next goal is to brush my teeth. How many goals of that magnitude should I aim to accomplish in my lifetime?

[nour-cha93]

As many as you wish 

[BjarkeT]

if there is a goal you really want to achieve but can't work on your personal development so it no longer becomes and obstacle. Thats the mindset i try to have. You should try to achieve as many as you like but probably best with one at a time.

[ULFBERHT]

Thanks to everyone who responded. A lot of really good insight here.

[ajasatya]

42

[Highest]

None. Making goals is a sure way to imprison yourself. Goals are in the future, you are here now. That's an insight you can get in deep meditation. Life itself is with no goal or meaning, but with your mind you can create as many as you wish. You will however not know what true freedom and contentment is.

[Greys0n]

Now I have 2 goals

get new job

visit Japan