Most of us would benefit from avoiding making "target goals" in areas we have low experience of and/or success in.

Instead, we would be better served by making "threshold goals" with a view to improving our skills and experience first, then evolving our goal to be more acutely specific as we build competency.

This is likely to help develop and strengthen the necessary skills needed to achieve a particular outcome before we have to rely on them too heavily.

This time of year every year people go all-in on the hyper-specific. I am going to;

• Strength train at the gym every day between Monday and Friday

• Run every Saturday on Sunday

• Eat plain oatmeal for breakfast

• Eat plain chicken and rice for lunch

• Eat a protein shake for dinner

• Quit drinking

• Turn down snacks

• Stop eating the donuts at work

These however are very specific outcomes that we are looking to avoid. And though there is value in avoidance goals for beginners, we need skills to help us hit those goals.

When we try and break down what it will take to do ALL of these things at once, it quickly becomes clear that we neither have the skills to execute nor the experience to avoid the steps needed to hit these goals. That is both ok and expected. We can’t do everything all at once. Instead, it might make more sense for us to set some less specific but still goal-oriented “threshold goals” to aim for.

For example “strength train at the gym every day between Monday and Friday” instead might become “complete 3 hours of strength training each week”.

This adjustment to set a threshold of work allows for more flexibility in hitting our targeted behavior (the strength training) without the rigidity and expectation of abiding by a likely unrealistic goal.

If you are trying to make 100 free throws but right now you don’t even hit the backboard 9/10, it makes sense to focus on the broader task (hitting the backboard rather than trying to drain 3’s from half-court). Studies show the approach-based threshold goals are more advantageous and lead to longer-lasting results in beginners and in many intermediates looking to master a new skill in pursuit of a greater goal.

In what area could you benefit from turning a target goal into an approach goal? Let me know by replying to this email and let me know how I can help?

Thanks!