Richmond Dinh argues that people should not set "goals" because the word carries a weak emotional attachment that undermines commitment. Using an anecdote from a wealth seminar in Fiji (the "Leap of Faith" pole challenge), he proposes adopting a "vision" and "standards" instead, tying commitments to identity to increase follow-through.
Chapters
It's Richmond Dinh. Here, look. Today I'm going to share with you why you should never, never, never ever set goals for your life. I know it sounds crazy, it sounds crazy, but you should never ever set goals. And here's the reason why. I was at a wealth seminar in Fiji about a month ago, and they had this huge challenge for us to do. And the challenge was called the Leap of faith. And how it worked was there's this telegraph pole about 20 meters high, and there were pegs that ran up the pole. And you get harnessed up and you have to climb up this pole. And then once you're at the top, you've got to balance yourself at the top, which was the size of a D, A plate, and so your feet don't even fit on top properly anyway. And once you're balanced, there was this trapeze which was about 2 meters higher up and a meter and a half in front of you where you had to jump and take the leap of faith to catch the trees so it would let you down slowly. Now, if you missed, you would have to free fall for about 5 meters before the tension of the rope will catch you through your harness. Now, out of 120 people that were there at the seminar, every single person attempted the challenge. And here's the reason why. Because it was called the leap of faith. Now, had this been called the suicide jump or the leap of death or you're crazy if you try this jump or something like that, then so many less people would have attempted the challenge. Because the name of the challenge was something different. You see, our perception of the challenge completely changes the moment you change what you call it. And that's why you should never ever set yourself goals. Never ever set yourself goals. Because people have this weak emotional attachment to the word goals. And that's why most goals are never achieved. You need to be calling it a vision, you need to be calling it a standard. Because your commitment to your standards is a reflection of your commitment to your word. And your commitment to your word is a reflection of who you are. The moment you drop the words goals and you use the words vision or standards is the moment you attach your identity to it and you say to yourself, you know what? This is just who I am. That's when the whole game changes. So from this point forward, never ever set yourself goals, Set yourself a vision, set yourself a standard for your life, and your life will never ever be the same again.
