Do you really want to achieve that goal? Then set a date.

Yesterday, in yet another deep discussion about goal setting, I had a light bulb moment. It is not that people cannot set goals; they do it all the time. Why a goal is sometimes not achieved is often because the goal was never given an ‘achieve by’ date for its attainment.

I was not remiss in asking why is it important to set an “achieve by” date for reaching a goal. In fact, I did ask; several times. When met with silence, another light bulb. I then asked, why not set a due date to achieve a goal? Interestingly, that question seemed to elicit hope. After all, in ‘why not?’ there is a whole lot less pressure, as in, why not go to Las Vegas? Though there may be a number of (truly) valid reasons for not going to Las Vegas (though, off hand, I can’t think of any), when the question of going is posed in terms of ‘why not’, your mind has no choice but to actively seek rationale to support the reasons why it is a good idea.

Of course, there is an upside to never establishing an ‘achieve by’ date for goals: You can forever maintain the illusion of still having the goal even if you never achieve it. In my opinion, not a good strategy, especially if you do want to achieve a goal.