Single-speaker podcast episode (uploaded by Nick Stumbo) examining common pitfalls of numeric or streak-based goals. The speaker argues that focusing on streaks or numeric accomplishments can lead to discouragement and abandonment when people miss targets, and recommends shifting from performance/achievement metrics to concentrating on the underlying desired outcomes and how goals serve one’s life.
I think that's what we can fall into, especially if we have goals that are very numeric based or streak based, or they're all about the accomplishment of the goal. Because then if we fall off of the streak or we are falling behind on the potential accomplishment, then it's just like, well, I just give up, I'm not going to do it. And then we realize maybe that was the wrong goal because I was focused on the streak versus what it was doing in my life. So as so many people experience, if their goal is I'm going to go to the gym every day and then they miss a day, it's like, well, there went that goal, you know, Or I'm going to lose X amount of pounds every single month and you get a month behind. And again, the impossibility of keeping to your street can be what's discouraging. And I know a lot of people listening to this podcast can be very driven by performance, by accomplishment, finding their value in that sense of I did something well and I'm achieving and people are proud of me for what I'm doing and. And there is a mindset shift, I think, that has to go on, away from the numbers and the accomplishment and the performance, towards what is the desired outcome.
