Three Critical Factors to Consider Before Setting Goals

Last year we worked with Dr. C, a physician who was the head of occupational medicine at a very large hospital in one of the largest cities in the country. All her patients were employees of the hospital, so she saw them year in and year out. Like most people, over time, the employees, even those in their thirties and forties, developed the kind of health issues that are directly related to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors like smoking, drinking too much, getting too little exercise, and packing on the pounds by eating too much of the wrong thing.

Dr. C was dedicated to her patients, but she found the job difficult and demoralizing: No matter what she did to help her patients reach their goals, nothing worked.

Together, they did what seemed like all the right things:

They monitored body weight, cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure.
They tracked lifestyle behaviors.
They reviewed educational materials.
They created SMART goals.
They assembled lists of classes and support groups.

The list goes on, but none of that had much effect. The bad numbers went up and the good numbers continued to go down.

That’s because . . .

Why Goals Fail Us

Ask people what you have to do to make positive change in your life and 99% will say, “First, set a goal.”

That’s common sense.

But common sense is not only all that common nor is it always right.

Goals are crucial. Even when people set goals, they have trouble. That’s because often the goals:

Are abstractions (“Get fit” or “Eat clean”) that are not associated with a tangible behavior
Make you commit to “forever” or “never” behavior that is impossible to maintain over time and in different contexts (“I will always stick just to on small piece of chocolate cake [even on my birthday],” “I will never drink more than one beer [even if I’m at an all-day family reunion picnic])
Start off way too ambitious, especially to start (Meditate “just” 15 minutes, run a mile, empty my inbox)
Are too restrictive and general (Stay off all social media)
Describe behaviors to avoid rather than what you should do instead (Stop losing my temper, don’t procrastinate, stop letting people take advantage of me)

Even when people design better goals, including SMART goals (lose 3 pounds within 2 weeks by adhering to the eating plan my dietician gave me), they aren’t the first place to begin your change process.

That’s because goals can’t motivate us over the long term. They don’t drive our behavior nor help us stay on course when the going gets tough. And they don’t enable us to recover from setbacks, slip-ups, and goofs.

So what does help?

The answer comprises just three words:

Purpose
Values
Dreams

Before we talk about why these are so important and how they apply to change, let’s define terms so we’re all on the same page.

Purpose

Some people think of purpose as their reason for being. Purpose defines why you do what you do. It’s what gives your life meaning and provides the direction for your actions.

Purpose serves as the central self-organizing aim in your life: It tells you what and where to devote your energy.

Purpose makes us feel that what we do counts.

Values

Values are the beliefs that you hold most dear and what guide you to act one way or another. Some values have intrinsic worth, such as love, truth, and freedom. Other values are the means to an end that include traits or behaviors, such as responsibility, honesty, kindness, and courage.

Values are the sacred and moral imperatives that you’re willing to go to the mat for. They are things you won’t compromise on. They are the driving force in your decision-making. Living by your values is how you achieve your purpose.

Dreams

Dreams are what happen when you fulfill your purpose. It’s the outcome.

Dreams are what you hope for without considering the how of what you need to do to make it happen. (That comes later.) Dreams are how the world looks when you have fulfilled your purpose.

For example, if your dream is to live in a world where peace abounds and there is no more war, then your life purpose might be to help people manage conflict.

Insights from Alison Levine help us understand how critical it is to define our purpose, values, and dreams, and to keep them front and center.

Alison is a history-making polar explorer and mountaineer. She served as team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, climbed the highest peak on each continent and skied to both the North and South Poles—a feat which only twenty people in the world have achieved. Alison also taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and now serves as a Senior Fellow at the Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics at Duke University.

Of all people, she knows what it takes to keep going even when the going gets as tough as it possibly can.

For Alison, knowing your purpose, values, and dreams is what enables you to stay true to yourself and to your beliefs when your plans go south and the sh*t hits the fan.

In fact, having a personal statement of purpose, or credo--as Levine thinks of it--is crucial for all leaders, starting with your own self-leadership.

That’s because rarely do things go exactly as planned.

Know the expression, Man plans. God laughs?

It means that every journey includes at least a few twists and turns and bumps in the road. If anything, it’s more common for unexpected challenges to crop up than for everything to always go exactly as planned.

It’s easy to stick to your guns when everything is going right, but you need something more than just goals to keep you on track.

The need for a way to manage unexpected challenges is echoed in what General Douglas McArthur said in 1962 to West Point cadets.

In his address, he urged them to think about their purpose, values, and dreams; and have a personal statement that could act as “. . . a rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”

The need for a personal statement of purpose isn’t only important when you’re scaling Everest, crossing the North Pole, or heading off to fight for freedom.

Having your own personal statement of purpose (or credo, as Levine and McArthur call it) is a ready-made platform for the kind of self-leadership you need to embody so you can stick with what’s most important to you, no matter what.

Back to Dr. C . . .

Remember the story of Dr. C whose patients’ health risks kept growing in spite of all the goals they set for themselves and all the things they did to try to reach those goals?

All those efforts seemed pretty fruitless until . . .

What Works Better Than Numbers

What changed the trajectory for her patients was when Dr. C shifted the focus away from goals to sense of purpose, values, and dreams.

Instead of starting “with the numbers,” Dr. C began by engaging her patients in conversation about who they were and what was important to them.

She asked her patients to share with her what they had done since their last appointment that had been satisfying to them--things that they found rewarding, interesting, or even fun.

She then asked them about the important people in their lives--people they cared about, people who cared about them--and what their hopes and dreams were for their lives.

Through her curious-conversation style, Dr. C started learning about who her patients really were, and what and who was important to them. She gained insights into what gave her patients meaning in life.

This had a huge effect on Dr. C, her patients, and their eventual health outcomes.

That curiosity and the insights she gained enabled Dr. C to help her patients connect the dots between their “numbers” and what they really cared about, whether that was doing things playing active sports, mentoring at-risk youth, working on hobbies; or feeling more energetic and alert so they had the confidence to make important career moves or other life changes.

By knowing these things, Dr. C was able to help her patients see how their health behaviors related to their sense of purpose and meaning.

From then on, conversations between Dr. C and her patients took on a different meaning. Of course, they still kept an eye on numbers and used them to gauge progress, but those numbers now related to things that mattered to her patients.

Living Your Values and Purpose Has Long-Term Benefits

We’re sharing this story because making purpose, values, and dreams your “North Star,” is key to creating a life worth living.

In fact, that “North Star” of purpose, values, and dreams is the core of the YOU in our revolutionary Y-PET framework for change.

Y-PET stands for You, People, Environment, and Things.

It’s a framework for change that gives you a systematic and deliberate way to manage the many factors that can either put you into the winner’s circle of positive change or leave you at the back of the pack.

When you work the YOU in the Y-PET framework, you define your purpose, identify values, and shape your dreams. All that not only has short-term benefits, like helping you boost your career and improve your lifestyle practices, but it has long-term effects, too.

You see, until now we’ve talked about purpose related to you--your career and lifestyle. But when your purpose also includes serving others, you maximize the benefit you get out of it.

We don’t yet know why, but it turns out that people seem to have much stronger biological mechanisms that keep them healthy and able to thrive over their lifetime when their purpose goes beyond just their own pleasure and immediate satisfaction.

In fact, almost a thousand studies conducted over the last forty years demonstrate that living with purpose may reduce the risk of death by stroke and heart attack, lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, help people manage chronic health conditions, boost the body’s ability to repair DNA (which slows the aging process), reduce anxiety and depression, and improves sleep.

Let’s go back to goals because this is where we began. So where do goals belong and what is their role?

Goals are the objectives you meet that enable you to fulfill your purpose. They help you set priorities, remove distractions, and keep you working toward living your purpose. Goals are the building blocks of action that get you to your purpose.

That’s why setting goals is not the first thing to do when it comes to thinking about making changes in your life.

Setting goals is important, but that comes later in any change process--after you identify the values that are most important to you, and define your purpose that will help you achieve your dreams.

Exploring and then clearly defining your sense of purpose and identifying your core values is a fundamental aspect of working with the YOU in the Y-PET framework.

To get started on the YOU, download your own Action Guide.

If you're just joining and missed the series of posts featuring the Be Your Own Best Coach revolutionary Y-PET framework on the Art & Science of Lasting Change, catch up on previous posts below.

Y-PET stands for You, People, Environment, and Things. It’s a framework for change that gives you a systematic and deliberate way to manage the many factors that can either put you into the winner’s circle of positive change or leave you at the back of the pack.