Beginners, Start Here!

Goal Setting Is A Waste Of Time.

Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) 19 Comments

Every year comes the new barrage of blog posts touting goal setting like it’s some sort of mystical, future telling strategy.  I bought into the belief that setting a goal was of some value, but after 20 years of doing it and seeing the majority of my goals go by the wayside, year after year, I finally figured something out.

Goals are a waste of time.

You have probably heard of many different ways to set your goals.  Goals should be stated in the positive and given a date that you want to fulfill them.  Maybe, if you heard of some ‘advanced’ goal setting strategies, you might have heard that you should write down the “WHY” you want the goal so that you can add some emotion to them.

Those things are a complete waste time… on their own.

Honestly, there is something very profound that you HAVE to know before you can even  begin working on the strategy of writing a goal.

You have to know your DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE.

Your Definite Major Purpose (DMP) represents the central mission of your life right now.  The DMP is the guiding reason for doing everything you do.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich, says it is the thing that you desire most in life.

I’d say that it is the thing that you most desire to do WITH your life.

Once you have your DMP all the decision you make including what goal to set, all the way down to what you will do every single moment of every day, will be VERY easy.

If you align your goals to your DMP you will have an infinite amount of energy and will to actually take ACTION on your goals.

I’ll talk about the specific steps to take to bring vibrant life to your goals in the next post, but now, let’s talk about how you can define your DMP.

Here are a list of questions to help you decide what you want your central mission in life to be:

What would I like to dedicate my life to?
What is the most important thing I would like to accomplish in your lifetime?
What fulfills me about all other things?
Why am I here?

Here is an example of MY DMP:

*************

FREEDOM

Freedom to create the exact lifestyle I choose
(financial freedom makes this possible)

Freedom to live anywhere I and my family choose

Freedom of making my own schedule
(I work as much or as little as I want)

Freedom to be and think what I truly want

FULFILLMENT

Constant growth and learning

Teaching others to find their DMP & ultimate fulfillment

Be a prolific creator of my thought creations

Have passionate and inspired friends

Create legacy

Have integrity in all aspects of life

INSPIRATION

Making a difference in the quality of life with everyone I come in contact with

Inspire others’ lives by living my life with purpose and total fulfillment.

RECOGNITION

To be world renowned as a thought leader

To have other thought leaders and celebrities benefit from my thought creations

*************

Having a DMP that detailed makes is very easy to decide if a goal is really something you want to do.  You can quickly see if your goals actually forward your purpose or are totally not aligned with it.

So, before even thinking of wasting time setting the same goals you make every year, try adding the foundation that will make taking action simple and easy by defining your DMP.

TAKE ACTION:

  • Start now and create your Definite Major Purpose.

In the next blog post I will NOT teach you how to set goals, since there are BOATLOADS of other post doing just that, but I will talk about HOW to make them happen!

What do you think?

  • Share your DMP.  It may help others with creating their purpose!
Bookmark and Share
This post is in: Mindset for Success
Tags: ,

19 Comments Leave a Comment


Sterling;

Great post.

For me, this simply boils down to understanding why you are setting the goals in the first place. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there (no matter how many miles you travel).

Mark

Reply


I believe goals are very important. But Setting them just because it’s a new year is the wrong reason to set a goal.

Goals should be created to move you forward towards your overall vision. You must have that vision, that direction of your life or business.

So many people come up with an idea and just get to work but they really don’t know where they are going. There’s no direction.

This is the same thing with a lot of the “year end goals”. They make them becasue it’s what everyone does. Well if everyone jumped off a bridge…. You get the picture.

Creating a goal should be a stepping stone in the direction of your vision. Achieve it, then set the next one. The more you achieve, the longer the path and the closer you are to where you want to go.

The difference with a vision though, is that it’s not really an attainabble destination. It’s a direction.

So set your goals and move in that direction.

Get ready.

Are you “Gonna Shine in 09″?

Reply


I like this post, Jeremy. I’ve never found goal setting that useful for me either.

I do distinctly remember having the goal of making $100 a day from my websites at one point, but I’m not sure having a little post-it note next to the computer that said merely “$100″ is what helped me get there. (Real goal-setting gurus would have laughed at the vagueness of that sticky note anyway) And honestly the writing I’ve done to get to that point and beyond hasn’t really been in line with what I’m realizing my “definite major purpose” is.

I stumbled across Chris Martenson’s “Crash Course” movie a few months ago and it was (I don’t say this lightly because I’ve never used the term before) a life-changing experience. Some things move you because you’re at a time and in a place where you’re ready to be moved, and that’s how it was for me.

So my DMP now?

Over the next couple years I want to transition from making money from running advertising and affiliate programs on my sites (in other words, enriching corporations and fueling a consumer-drenched society) and devote my time to teaching and doing work that *matters*.

Of course, I don’t intend for my earnings to go down in the process, so that’ll be a challenge for me to work on. :)

Happy New Year, everyone.

~Lindsay

Reply


Great post. The DMP creates that burning desire that entrepreneurs are so famous for.

I made my initial first post in the group yesterday and have already discovered what I wanted from doing so. It is clear that this group is very serious about doing more than just making money which brings long term sustained growth both personally and financially.

I am excited to be a part of this!
Kirk

Reply


I agree.

Goal setting is not the key to succeeding, in fact it can get in the way. Many books tell us to set goals and focus on them, yet that’s not what’s most important for success.

We have to have a mission that is bigger than us, something that inspires us and others.

Reply


Very helpful – I’ve never heard of DMP or have though about how something like that can align your forward momentum to obtain the things we want.

Thank you for sharing this!

Reply


I made the same point on another blog recently when commenting on the purpose for any post. Everything we do in business should have a purpose, and that purpose should further our DMP. Listening to the most recent “Cubicle Escape” Podcast completly reinforced that for me. Thanks for the good work.

Reply


Those of you who believe goals are of no value have missed the whole point of the original article “Goals are a waste of time.”

I totally agree that you must have a Definite Major Purpose because in order to achieve anything that is of major value, you must have a why. Your DMP is your why. However, a wonderful DMP without a goal set to go with it is just as big a loser as a set of goals without a DMP.

Let me give you an example. On Sunday afternoon you favorite football team is in the process of carrying out their DMP. Winning the SuperBowl. However, just having that DMP is not enough. They must develop a blueprint for action steps, also known as goals in order to fulfill that DMP. Those action steps would be to win games. (a goal). In order to win a game their are other smaller goals involved. The players and coaches each has to get out of bed.
They have to make it to the stadium. They have to get themselves emotionally and psychologically prepared for the game. Then they have to play through every down and gain every yard. They have to score touchdowns.

These are the action steps that they need to take to get to that superbowl win. When they make a decision to carry out each of the steps I have listed above, they have set a goal. Goal are of monumental importance.

If you believe you have ever achieved anything without setting a goal first, you need to take another look at things.

Continue to set your goals around your DMP and you will win.

Reply



Scott

Sterling,
I do agree that you need your DMP first, this is what drives your goals. Without knowing that, things will be unclear and scattered. Once you have established a clear DMP, then the goals will follow and completely align. I believe it is a good idea to have a few top goals for the year/quarter that are congruent with your DMP.
Bottom line is have your DMP, then the goals will follow.
Great insight and thanks for sharing.

Reply


This is great, but in your example, I recommend that you should refine it further.
The longer your explanation of your purpose and the more detail you put in it, the harder it is to remember and work toward.
It will be more effective if you treat it like you would a USP or the explanatory line about the purpose of your web site

Reply


DMP

Definite major purpose.

I like that. I know mine.

It will happen.

David King

Reply


Thanks for all the great comments! I finished up this idea on the next blog post I did on goals here:

http://www.internet-based-business-mastery.com/making-goals-worth-something

@Chris,

Yeah, if I was just to directly tell someone what my DMP was I wouldn’t give the entire list I added above. I would say something like, I have dedicated my life to Freedom, Fulfillment, Inspiration and Recognition.

The specific bullet points are what I use to define what I mean by each term and I think they need to be very specifically defined so you know exactly what you are going towards. This is important especially if you use just a big and general term like ‘freedom’. It could mean so many things, I like to be exact in what I mean.

Reply


Love the post. I agree, goal setting is a waste of time if you first have not taken the time to define your DMP. In fact, I was just reading chapter 17 from from David Allen’s new book “Making It All Work”, called Getting Perspective at Fifty Thousand Feet: Purpose and Principles. Great book, great illustration of the power of purpose.

Check it out!

Reply


[...] Goals are a Waste of Time separate 1 [...]


Great Post Sterling!

Hopefully I’ll join IBM soon.

You and Jay are delivering great value.

All the best for you both in 2010!

Charl

Reply


@Charl,

Thanks man, we try!

Reply



Elliot Russell

Goal setting is very important specially if you want to plan long term.**’

Reply

Leave a Comment

To avoid comment spam and preserve the value of this blog to the readers, a name and e-mail are required. We also screen all comments. Please do not submit your comment more than once. It will appear shortly.