by Daniel Clough on January 16, 2012
This is going to be my last post on goal setting for a while as I may (if not already!) end up boring people.
I’ve decided to live life without goals for at least 90 days. Instead I will focus on developing permanent habits – one at a time (well nearly….. you know me ! 
).
My main focus in the short term will be health. I am going to work on establishing one permanent habit after another until I feel in a good place. No goals or expectations, just habits that I am confident will lead me to achieve the right things.
For the next 30 days I am only going to focus on establishing the following two habits:
1. Drink 1.5 litres of water per day
2. Wake Early – Mon – Fri @ 4.30am, Sat – Sun @ 6.00am
And that’s it. I’ll check in mid Feb with an update.
by Daniel Clough on January 13, 2012
So, my last post was quite a long one about my 2012 goals and my planning process and I am already seriously considering doing away with goals altogether (this is a hard thing for me to say!).
We’re nearly two weeks into 2012 and my weekly and daily planning process has fallen into exactly the same place it always does – I get too ambitious, set the benchmark too high and come in way too low. I also spread myself way too thin and end up trying to do many things half-way which means l end up feeling crap about what I achieved at the end of the week. I also cannot get out of my head that I am ultimately failing to create permanent habits that are important to me (eat well, exercise regularly etc.)
I’m also starting to realise that goals no longer motivate me. Reading back on my 2012 goals, it would certainly be great if I did everything, but reading it just doesn’t excite me – I just don’t get fired up reading it. They are just words.
I am therefore seriously considering just focusing on creating new habits, one at a time and forgetting about long term goals for the next 3 months. I’m thinking I’ll still probably have a daily planning process to keep me organised but I will let go of any planning beyond that.
This kinda scares me and is completely different to how I have approached the last 10 years. I’ve always had goals and have achieved a lot along the way, but the fact that I feel so crap all of the time and fail to develop the habits I so badly want to are the main drivers to considering a brand new approach. The one thing that is making me seriously consider this is that I am naturally someone who has a good vision for what I want out of life and what’s important to me at any one time. Because of that, comprehensive goal planning isn’t going to be the death of me. And anyway, it’s only 3 months right?
Below are some of the articles I have been reading from Zen Habits that are helping me shape my thinking. If you have any advice or feedback on this blog post or the below articles, I’d love to hear it.
achieving, without goals
the best goal is no goal
100 days without goals
How to Have the Best Year of Your Life (without Setting a Single Goal)
How I changed my life in four lines
The Half Step
The Single Changing Method
