The Reason Why Goal Setting IS Slowing You Down.
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Everybody and their grandmother knows that setting goals is going to catapult you towards success.
This is a widely accepted concept that nobody wants to question.
But what if. goal setting was actually the reason why you can achieve your goals?
That would be quite ironic right? Well it turns out that for a lot of people, it is the case.
The reason is that they make a crucial mistake right off the bat and this sets them up for failure.
In this episode, I am going to reveal what that mistake is and how you can avoid it
Make sure to tune in
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Here is one of my favorite quotes:
โItโs not about ideas. Itโs about making ideas happen.โ
, Scott Belsky, co-founder Behance
Martin Ebongue
Online Entrepreneur & free spirit:
Proud Co-Founder Of The Ninja leads Mastermind
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International Speaker | Podcaster | Free Spirit
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Welcome to the Freedom By Choice Podcast with your one and only hoste Martin. This podcast is reserved for freedom aficionados and entrepreneurs looking to create the lifestyle of their dreams.
In this podcast you will find all the support and answers you need to start, grow and scale a business that gives you the freedom you deserve.
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You have a lot of gurus, marketers and all that kind of stuff or influencers or something that are going to tell you that you need to write down exactly what you want, like your goals and stuff.
OK, so I want a business that does that much with twenty five thousand employees within this time frame and the product that we sell is this and blah, blah, blah. So you have to go into very, very detailed stuff.
Which, you know, on one hand is actually pretty good because if you know exactly the specifics of it, then you can get there. But there are different schools.
So it does work for some people, but it might not work for others. You might not be that kind of person who needs to have the details of everything down to the dot. For example, I am not one of those people. I am not the most successful person in the world. I'm the most successful in what I like to do, which is my life.
I think I'm doing a pretty good job there. And do I actually have something lined up saying, oh, well, I have a business that has that many offices and 57 employees and one of them is named Bob? And we do that much per month and all that kind of stuff. No, I don't have this, OK?
And if you're struggling with the really hyper descriptive tasks that they ask you to do, especially when you're starting out, it's super hard for you to be able to do this because you don't have enough background information, you don't have enough experience in the field, meaning that you need to have done this for five years, but you don't and you're not connected to the realities of that field.
I'm going to tell you what I do now, and that may be actually a lot easier for you. So this is what I was telling my girlfriend yesterday because she was struggling with this. She's like, yeah, but I need to write down exactly what I want and the type of business and what the business does and blah, blah, blah, etc..
Table of Contents
The Reason Why Goal Setting IS Slowing You Down
I said, look what they're asking you to do. It might work for them, but it might not necessarily work for you. You might be different. Here's how I'm doing this.
OK, so the business that does X, Y, Z, blah, blah, blah is a vehicle. OK, this is how I see it is just a vehicle. A business is just a freaking vehicle. OK, what I'm looking at is where I want to go. Where I'm looking is where I want to be able to have a choice.
I don't want to go to the office and all that kind of stuff. And I want the number of filters on my life to be as small as possible. OK, so filters, I mean your boss, your finances and all that kind of stuff.
So now regardless of the vehicle, it could be affiliate marketing, it could be e-commerce, it could be selling my own products. It could be doing some consulting, whatever the vehicle. I don't care as long as it takes me there.
I think this is a lot easier for you to understand that direction than to come up with some specifics of the vehicle, as if I asked you to describe all the specifics of your car. Whatโs the point of that?
Here's the problem that I see when people ask you to do this, like, oh, you need to write down that business, that blah, blah, blah. OK, so let's say you have you have this business that does twenty million dollars and have five million employees and all that kind of stuff.
OK, but it could be that. OK, so why are you starting this business? Maybe because you want to be able to have more time and only work between holidays instead of the opposite. Right. So that's what you want to do.
But they're asking you just to detail the vehicle. So what will happen is you might actually go and create that vehicle just to realize that, damn, I'm stuck, I'm stuck in there. I cannot go out of that because everything revolves around me. If I stop this, then I'm dead, you know, the whole thing crumbles.
So that's why I'm not too caught up on the specifics of, well, do I want a business that does this and sells this product and blah, blah, blah, etc.. I am looking at the direction of where I want my life to go, because that way I will never, ever end up in a path where I'm stuck somewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does traditional goal setting slow people down?
Goals focus on a future outcome the brain cannot influence directly, which creates anxiety and procrastination. Daily systems focus on inputs you fully control, like ship one thing or call three prospects. Replacing yearly goals with weekly systems usually doubles output within ninety days because action becomes the default.
What works better than setting yearly goals?
A weekly cadence with three lead measures and one lag measure. Lead measures are inputs, like emails sent, and lag measures are outcomes, like revenue. Reviewing the lead measures every Friday makes course correction fast and keeps motivation tied to action rather than wishful thinking.
How do systems beat goals for long term progress?
Systems run on autopilot once installed, while goals require constant willpower. A simple system, like writing every weekday morning for one hour, will outperform a yearly goal of writing a book in twelve months. Systems compound while goals decay if motivation dips for two weeks.
How often should you actually review goals or systems?
Review systems weekly, every Friday afternoon, and review larger goals quarterly. Daily goal reviews waste time and amplify anxiety. The weekly system review identifies what to repeat or change, while the quarterly goal review keeps the bigger direction honest without micromanaging the path.
Goals Point At The Horizon, Systems Move Your Feet
I used to write beautiful goals and then wonder why nothing happened for months. The goal was never the problem, it was that a goal only names the destination, it does not walk you there. Goal setting feels slow because a target sitting on a page does no work on its own, and the gap between deciding and doing is where most dreams quietly die. What finally sped everything up was realizing I did not need a bigger goal, I needed a smaller loop I could run every single day without thinking about it.
So keep the goal, but stop staring at it. Break it into a daily action so small it is embarrassing to skip, then build a system that makes that action the default instead of a decision. Progress is boring, repeatable, and fast once you stop waiting to feel motivated. I talk about turning goals into daily systems on the Freedom by Choice podcast and in my own story. For the research, Harvard Business Review has covered why systems outperform goals for real change, and HubSpot has data on building the habits that make targets stick.
About the Author
Martin Ebongue is the host of the Freedom By Choice podcast and founder of Launch Builder Pro. With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and business automation, Martin helps solopreneurs build systems that generate income without trading time for money. Based in Bali, he has built 1,500+ automation workflows for Fortune 500 brands including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and eBay, and trained 2,000+ students worldwide.
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