Danger Goal Setting Can Hurt You

Goal setting can hurt you. Yes, I know, goals are one of those sacred things not to be criticized because the evidence is clear; setting goals leads to success. While it is true that goal setting when done properly contributes a lot to your growth and success, there are also times when goal setting can actually harm you.

Whenever you set goals properly, it gets you focused, motivated, and causes you to outperform your usual self. This is fantastic for personal growth, and as I said earlier, goal setting helps you succeed in life.

So what is the danger in goal setting?

The danger from goal setting is when you fail to take a break from the process. Think about elite athletes for a moment. They are incredibly focused and use goal setting during their season. But o5A8nce their season is over, they back off a bit from their focus. This is a needed time of rest and recovery. Because goal setting can elevate our performance so dramatically, it also has the potential to burn us out if we are not careful. We burn out when we are constantly called to stretch ourselves and grow without any rest and recovery time.

When you workout in the gym, you apply stress to your muscles. The real growth occurs after your workout when your body has a time of recovery. Ask any fitness professional and they will tell you that working out constantly without a time for recovery will actually make you weaker. The key word there is "recovery." This cycle of stress followed by rest and recovery is evident in many places in life. In fact there is very little growth without the stress-recovery cycle.

Because goal setting can initiate a time of good stress by calling you higher, you also need to have periods of time where you are not being stretched and trying to grow. I know this may sound strange, but typically people set goals and come out of the blocks hard for the first couple of months, then they get tired and realize they cannot sustain this effort forever. It is usually at this point that they quit all together on their goals.

If you want to have a consistent year of goal setting, then break your year into trimesters. For each trimester, which consists of four months, make the first three mon57Eths, times of focused goal setting, and the fourth month a time to throttle down and take a break. To give you an example, here is a way you might structure your year beginning in January.

Goal Setting Months ===========Rest Months

January, February, March, ==========April

May, June, July, ================August

September, October, November, ======December

By following a cycle like this you will actually grow more than if you simply try to set goals year round without any break. Go ahead and commit to some goals for the next three months with a planned break from goal setting in your fourth month. You will find this structure very motivating and also you will see some incredible growth as a result.

Do you want to make massive progress on your goals and dreams? Take the Summit Challenge; the online goal setting game guaranteed to help you reach your peak potential. In addition to creating the Summit Challenge James Robbins also delivers keynotes on personal excellence and leadership issues such as employee retention and creating engaging workplaces. To find out more about the Summit Challenge, go to http://www.ontothesummit.com