Think twice before setting goals that maintain the status quo
Posted on December 11, 2019 by Jay Varcoe, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Surprisingly, setting small, modest goals for improvement are actually easier to achieve than holding steady to the status quo.
As we finish 2019, many of us may be starting to formulate our New Year’s resolutions and some business owners are in the process of formulating their 2020 budgets. I have a client who felt pretty good about their results of 2019 so they said that they wanted to simply maintain that success for 2020. They wanted an achievable goal and they were a little bit worried that the economy might take a turn south in 2020. Given their situation and forecast for 2020, maintaining the status quo seemed like a reasonable and responsible approach to goal setting and planning for their small business budget, however I was reminded of a study that I had read about earlier this year.
Some marketing professors from the global business school, INSEAD conducted a study to determine which type of goals have a higher probability of being achieved. The study determined that setting small, modest goals for improvement are actually easier to achieve than holding steady to the status quo.
The professors explain the results of the study by identifying a quirk in the way our brain perceives goals and the corresponding effect on our motivation to achieve those goals. The professors believe that the brain processes information related to goal setting in a two stage approach which can reveal counter-intuitive results when a maintenance goal is set.
When evaluating a goal, our brain first considers the difference between the current state and the desired state. We consider a bigger gap to be a more difficult goal which might be harder to achieve. The second stage of the process assesses the context of the goal to determine how hard the goal will be to achieve given outside influences upon the chances of success.
The quirk in brain processing occurs when a maintenance goal is set. A goal with zero difference between the current state and the desired state skips the first stage of our brain processing pushing us to immediately face the outside challenges that will hinder us from accomplishing our goals. Without that initial motivational, positive affirmation produced by striving for an achievable goal of incremental improvement, the brain falls directly into negative thinking putting the brakes on the ability to achieve the desired results. Suddenly even maintaining the status quo becomes a daunting task given all of the obstacles in your way.
As you contemplate your goals for 2020, let’s make it better than 2019 rather than settle for holding steady!
Thanks,
Jay Varcoe, CPA, MBA, ELI-MP
“Helping Successful Small Business Owners To Break Through Plateaus”
jay@jayvarcoe.com
Cell: (602)524-5275
www.jayvarcoe.com
