Why Goals Help

Motivation

We are all motivated by different things. Some by money, some by power, some by chocolate . With all these things, we can be motivated in only one of two ways: towards the pleasure or away from the pain. Let's take the pleasure first.

Towards pleasure motivation

If you were motivated by money (I'm sure you're not, but just imagine it), and motivated towards money, you might say:

"I want to be rich."

or

"I want to be able to afford a big house and lots of expensive holidays."

or

"I want lots of money."

Away from pain motivation

Now let's look at the other way of being motivated; moving away from pain.

You would say:

"I don't want to be poor."

or

"I hate not being able to pay my bills."

or

"I don't like not being able to afford any new clothes."

Why is this important?

If you have a clear goal, where ever you are you know which direction you need to move in to get closer to it. So you are always moving towards it.

If you have no goal, just something that you are frightened of or don't want, you will move away from it when it gets too close. You will move in any direction at all, just move away from it. You will only be spurred into action when the problem, pain or danger is close. Once it's gone away you will return to inaction.

How much does it cost, not having goals?

For me, this is the crucial point. I wouldn't say I was mean, just careful with my money. When I realised just how much more cost-effective it was to set clear goals, it changed my whole perspective on life.

Why it costs you so much

Imagine you have no money in your bank account. You are motivated towards pleasure. You want lots of money. Are you motivated to get some? Yes, of course you are. Once you have some money, are you motivated to get some more? Yes.

Now imagine you are motivated to move away from pain. You have no money (lots of pain). So are you motivated to move away from that situation? Yes. Now imagine you have got yourself some money. So you have no more pain. Are you still motivated? No.

The motivation has gone so you don't focus on moving away from the pain - guess what? You end up in pain again and look what happens to your bank account.

Solving the same problem time and time again

This is what happens when you use away from pain motivation. You end up using lots of effort to solve the same problem over and over again. It's a very inefficient process.

You will see it in many areas - just have a look at some of your colleagues and some of the people you know.

The easy way

When you see this happening, the first thing to do is to ask yourself what you need to achieve. It's really worth spending half an hour on that. It will save you so much time in the end. Don't worry if you find it hard at first, you may have just got into the habit of always looking on the down side. Keep at it and you'll find things will improve.

For more help on setting goals and objectives have a look at my booklet

How To Write Objectives That Work

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