Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
New year resolution or evolution? Finding Purpose Driven Behavioral Change
18 Plays1 month ago
Why do new year's resolutions fail?
Most people watch their New Year’s resolutions collapse by February and quietly decide they are the problem, not the approach they used. In this episode of Leadership Dissected, Dr. D and Dr. C unpack why traditional resolutions fail, using behavioral science to trace how all-or-nothing thinking, unrealistic timelines, and social comparison drain motivation. They walk through the four factors that drive real behavioral change motivation, social support, self-efficacy, and environment and show how small, consistent actions beat grand January promises. You will hear how to connect goals to a larger purpose, set dynamic milestones, and treat missteps as part of the process instead of proof that you failed.
The conversation then shifts from personal growth to organizational evolution. Dr. D and Dr. C connect New Year’s “resolutions” to annual strategic goals at work, explaining why leaders derail progress when they overload people, ignore capacity, or frame stretch targets as rigid pass/fail tests. You will learn how to set purpose-driven goals, build time and systems around them, and create a culture that celebrates progress over perfection so teams can actually move forward instead of burning out by March.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Purpose-Driven Goals
00:00:00
Chris
Why do 80% of resolutions fail by February, leaving us feeling like failures? Is there a better way to approach personal and professional growth? One that actually works.
00:00:11
Dale Werner
Today, we're talking about why resolutions fail and how to replace them with a more meaningful, purpose-driven approach. Welcome to Leadership Dissected, where we examine the details of leadership, strategy, workplace culture, and decision making through the lens of behavioral science. I'm Dr. D.
00:00:29
Chris
And I'm Dr. C, with our decades of leadership experience, PhDs in business psychology, we dig into the latest research trends and practical strategies to help you survive at work without losing your mind.
Why Resolutions Fail
00:00:43
Chris
So Dr. D, % of people give up on their New Year's resolution by February.
00:00:49
Dale Werner
Yeah, it's a pretty high statistic. Now, if you think about resolutions, they are are front of mind at the beginning of the year. I would say, I mean, we looked up various bits of research and the common rule of thumb is about 80% fail by February. If you're actually tracking your goals and you stay on top of them, research suggests about 50%. So that implies that another 30% of people just forget about their goals.
00:01:15
Dale Werner
if you think about it, that makes kind of sense. People are really motivated at the beginning of the year. People sign up for gym memberships and record numbers at the beginning of the year. The gyms are pretty busy at the beginning of the year, but by February or March, it's kind of back to a steady state flow.
Mindset and Its Impact on Resolutions
00:01:32
Dale Werner
Most people have either feel like they failed on their resolution or they've forgotten about what their resolution was for the year.
00:01:40
Chris
No, definitely. I think the gym industry greatly appreciates that people fail on their resolutions because they're still getting their money. But I think it's also this piece of good intentions. People have good intentions at the start of the year, brand new year, fresh start. Set some pretty rigid and lofty goals. And then one misstep derails all of it. You miss one day going to the gym.
00:02:03
Chris
You forget to eat that salad for the week. You don't get the right amount of sleep that you said you're going to do. So people are very much, it's all or none. And that creates a lot of challenges when it comes to these resolutions, setting these practical and achievable goals. And then, I mentioned, sometimes people set these really lofty goals
00:02:23
Chris
And if they don't hit that lofty goal, they automatically feel like it's a failure. So it's easier to quit while you're ahead than actually work towards that goal.
00:02:32
Dale Werner
absolutely. And that's the thing that I really hate about resolutions is you say I'm going to go to the gym every day this week or every day for the next for the next year. It's going to be my thing. I'm going to go five days a week. And then as soon as you don't hit that five days a week, it becomes very demotivating. You feel like, I failed at my resolution and therefore I'm a failure, right? That I didn't succeed at that, so that resolution, I missed it, so it's done. When, honestly, the real failure is recognizing that you missed out on your goal and didn't pick back up again. And it's really easy to not keep going on whatever that resolution was once you misstep the first time, because it may not be connected to a bigger goal, a bigger purpose.
00:03:22
Dale Werner
People either, as you said, Dr. C, their goal is way too lofty.
Behavioral Changes and Challenges
00:03:27
Dale Werner
They make this huge, ambitious goal that's really kind of unrealistic and it's not connected with an actual action plan. Or the ones that I have seen most regularly fail are ones that are overly specific and they say,
00:03:44
Dale Werner
I'm going to do something at some regular frequency. And as soon as you miss that frequency, that's a failure. So you fall off the wagon.
00:03:51
Chris
I think where people often overlook or don't think about is these resolutions actual behavioral changes. They're asking themselves to make a behavioral change. And for any behavioral change, there's going to be missteps. And then I think for a lot of people,
00:04:08
Chris
They want to see immediate results. They want to see immediate change. I think the idea of a person going to the gym after one workout, expecting there to be abs. Not me, not the tiniest of men in the world. When I go to a gym, I expect to have the full six pack looking like Wolverine. And when I don't see it on the first go,
00:04:27
Chris
automatically think I must be doing something wrong. I must not actually be doing what I'm supposed to do. And it's either go back to already established behaviors. Then to try to make this behavioral shift because we're going against our own mindset. And it's easier. To shift back to that. Let's let's go ahead and stop while we're ahead.
00:04:47
Chris
and keep that same mindset going because again, we're creatures of habits.
The Role of Systems and Processes
00:04:51
Dale Werner
and because of that habit, I think resolutions fail just because you forget about them. They're not truly connected with the with that behavioral change that you want to see in yourself. And so you forget that this is a thing that I really wanted to do. I put a lot of thought into it in January or before January 1st, and I said I'm going to do it. But then it gets lost in the daily shuffle and I would venture to guess that most New Year's resolutions that people with good intentions have in their mind don't get followed through on because they're forgotten about because life takes over life gets in the way. So motivation requires systems or processes or connection to a bigger goal in order to continue and this is where
00:05:40
Dale Werner
I think the idea of replacing New Year's resolutions with a New Year's evolution comes in to play. Evolving underlying requires you to recognize that there is some fundamental shift in your behavior or your being and if you focus on that change in mindset over the change in trying to accomplish a specific goal or a lofty goal, you're probably going to go farther because you have this guardrail at the front of your mind that is always reminding you of the thing that you want to do. And even if you
00:06:19
Dale Werner
If life gets in the way you get sick and you can't go to the gym, if you have a larger purpose, a larger motivation, and people around you holding you accountable to that larger goal, then it's much easier to, one, stick with that motivation, but two,
00:06:36
Dale Werner
when you have a misstep, it's easier to get back up and say, I'm gonna do it again. I'll give you my example. So I started running, throughout my life I've run quite a bit, but I always seem to stop running for a month or two. Life gets in the way, I get sick, the weather's not cooperating, whatever that is. But the motivation for me is I've got a kid, I wanna be able to keep up with my kid and have fun with my kid and running helps me have the motivation and the energy to do that. But sometimes I don't feel like running or sometimes I will look back and I will go, man, I haven't run in two weeks. What a failure. But then I'm like, well, no, the failure is not getting back out there now that I recognized and the situation around me is allowing me to go run. I'm not injured. The weather's OK, not sick or something like that. I'm not traveling, whatever that thing that might be in the way is.
00:07:33
Dale Werner
Well, okay, now I have time. I'm in good shape to do it. I need to go out and start doing it again. And having that connected with that larger purpose is the thing that helps me stay motivated and connected to my larger goal, which is being able to keep up with my kid and have fun, you know, without feeling winded or whatever that might be.
Factors Influencing Goal Success
00:07:53
Chris
That's a great example, Dr. D And I think it's important that we talk about the psychology behind making these behavioral changes. Because as I mentioned, that's essentially what we're doing. We're looking at this goal, this motivation. And what are we going to do? And really, when it comes to behavioral change, there's four factors that influence our ability to make those behavioral changes. First is motivation. That's our clear desire, willingness to change the behavior. And a lot of times that can be intrinsic, meaning we have some internal motivation. There's something about it that makes us feel good.
00:08:25
Chris
So we have some internal motivations that drive our behavior. It's alignment with our personal values, our goals.
00:08:32
Chris
But then we also have these external motivations. You know, sometimes there's a reward behind it. We're looking for that social approval people who are going to the gym. Sometimes you just want to look good with your clothes off. Those are those motivations. Another component that influences it is our social support. Although a lot of times our resolutions are for ourselves.
00:08:55
Chris
we need to have that social support, that supportive environment, network of individuals that are gonna help us and encourage us keep working towards those goals. That a lot of times can be like the accountability buddy, or if we're using this example, going to work out, going to a gym, gym partner, person who's gonna go with you to keep you going. And then we have our own self-efficacy.
00:09:18
Chris
our own belief that we can actually do this, that we can actually sustain this behavior.
00:09:22
Chris
And building that self-efficacy involves setting realistic goals, celebrating those small victories, and cultivating a growth mindset. Because when we're taking on these resolutions, trying to evolve ourselves, evolve our mindset, we do have to take this growth mindset.
00:09:40
Chris
And finally, we have environmental influences. As you mentioned, Dr. D, hey, if it's like pouring rain outside, it's going to be a little tough to go out for your run. You're probably not going to feel as motivated to go out there. Or let's say you have competing priorities,
00:09:57
Chris
family, friends, work. That's going to carve into that behavioral change, that time that you're going to spend to do that. So all of these play a role in our ability to actually undertake this behavioral change, to evolve who we are as a human being or evolve our behaviors.
The Pitfalls of Social Comparison
00:10:13
Dale Werner
this this extends beyond just your own motivations. But this these are things that you have to consider when you're being supportive of somebody else who is trying to achieve their own goals. It is. Easy to hold somebody accountable in a binary way. Did you do it or did you not do it?
00:10:33
Dale Werner
Did you were you expecting some sort of behavioral change from somebody else in the same way that you are for yourself? And it's really easy to say. Oh, well, it didn't happen. Therefore fail and you people look at that way for themselves as well But you should always explore if you feel like you're not making as much progress You should look at those four factors Have I mean have what has been stopping me from maintaining that internal motivation?
00:11:02
Dale Werner
What social support could I use to get some extra help? Do I need an accountability buddy? Is the goal just too big? Was I way too optimistic in the way that I was thinking about what I'm doing here? Do I need to make an adjustment? Your goals can shift as you're going with it. And was there something else? Did you have a significant family obligation or a big setback in another aspect of your life that might have impacted your motivation. These things have to be looked at in total, yet most of us hold ourselves accountable in a very binary way. Did we do it or did we not? And we often forget about all the reasons. Conversely, sometimes we make more excuses than we should in why we didn't do it.
00:11:50
Dale Werner
and we don't move past those reasons why it didn't happen and get back on track with whatever that goal is that we want to accomplish.
00:11:59
Chris
I think another factor that plays into it, back to the psychology of resolutions and changing ourselves, is this idea of social comparison.
00:12:10
Chris
We will compare our achievements, our behaviors, our looks, what we're doing to people around us, people in the media, people on social media, and set that as the benchmark of where I should be as an individual without having all the information on how these people got there.
00:12:29
Chris
if i jump onto the social media and see, you know, a marathon runner. And look at, wow, they have this time, they're running this many miles. And then I compare myself, who can probably do a mile in like an hour. Hey, I'm not that Olympic runner. Why am I not that Olympic runner? But for some people that can be demotivating because they're seeing someone else's achievements and goals.
00:12:52
Chris
and how they're doing it and you just physically can't do it. Or you just don't have the same motivation that the other person does.
00:12:59
Dale Werner
or the same circumstances that the other person does. An Olympic runner will have the opportunity to run multiple times a day for several hours. They'll have a professional trainer. The social comparison is a really interesting one because Most people only put out their best images, their best self, their best results. They don't share the challenges and the failures and the struggles or the undocked photo of themselves out on social media. People are very careful and cultivating about what they put out. And even friends and family members usually share
00:13:41
Dale Werner
a slightly polished or sanitized view of whatever it is that they're going through or however they achieved their goal because they want to be proud of the success and many people want to believe that success comes easy. And so when you're faced with that external narrative of success and what seems like relative ease to achieve that success, it can feel demotivating. It can feel like I don't know why I can't do it when somebody else can. And the reality is it doesn't matter what somebody else can do. What only matters is that you put in the effort towards whatever the thing is that you're trying to accomplish.
00:14:22
Chris
And that comes into this idea of upward and downward comparison when it comes to social comparison.
00:14:29
Chris
another factor the social comparison theory is the upward downward comparison.
00:14:37
Chris
upward comparison is really looking comparing yourself to someone that you deem as superior. that can be somewhat demotivating because you're looking at someone else's achievements and not quite looking at your own achievements and what you're doing. And then the downward comparison is looking at people that you may deem below you, not as successful, not meeting those goals or achievements that you're setting out. And that can influence the outcomes, that can influence our own self-perception and our own motivation to actually keep these resolutions and to have this growth mindset and to evolve. If you're comparing yourself to someone whose job
00:15:17
Chris
It is to work out, go to the gym, have a certain look, or at least have this perception of a certain look. It can be very demotivating. Even look at it in the workplace. We look at people who have certain levels of achievement in an organization are meeting certain goals that they're setting for themselves and we're comparing ourselves to it.
00:15:38
Chris
but we don't quite know the full circumstances of how did this person get there.
00:15:43
Dale Werner
taking cues from positive psychology, it really shouldn't matter what your perception of other people are in the achievement of your goals, but it's human nature to compare ourselves to others, to feel like we should be making progress relative to something because change, evolution, progress, it's slow and you don't often see the results as quickly as you believe you should.
Recognizing Slow Progress
00:16:15
Dale Werner
Yet, if you're seeing somebody else who has already achieved what you are striving for, you think you should be there already or
00:16:24
Dale Werner
Yeah, you think you should be there already or you should, it's as you said, Dr. C walking in doing like a week's worth of workout and at the gym and not losing 50 pounds or whatever your ultimate goal is or having, you know, ripped abs right after the first couple of sessions. It takes sometimes months or even years of dedication before you can actually look back at yourself and say, wow, this is the level of progress that I made. Career evolution, career growth takes time. You can't get a master's degree in business in a week. You have to go through the program. And then even then, you haven't finished learning. Usually an MBA, for example, teaches you how to keep monitoring and keep learning and keep evolving your knowledge
00:17:17
Dale Werner
So even a rigorous program, which is the goal for many people in the professional world, you can't do that in a week. You can't even do that in a year. It takes multiple years of study and continuing to focus on what you've learned in that field to be able to continue to grow and meet whatever the goals are that you are.
00:17:37
Dale Werner
I can tell you that when I went through my MBA program, I met with many of my fellow classmates who, after the program, felt very discouraged that even several years after the program, they didn't achieve that big job that they wanted, that big job change or whatever it was that they thought they would get out of the program immediately after completion.
00:17:59
Dale Werner
And I think that's a really good reminder that just because you go through a process doesn't mean you're going to achieve a goal. It takes not just that process, not just that evolution, but continued evolution and focus on whatever it is that you want to achieve.
00:18:19
Chris
I think you bring up a great point. It's a bit of reframing our approach. Using this word evolution. Now, scientifically, evolution is a a process. It's a long process. Things don't just evolve overnight. And having that mindset of understanding that these behavioral changes, these life changes, these goals,
00:18:40
Chris
are not going to be achieved in your first week, your first month. It's a process that helps reframe and give some space to understand that this is going to take time. I think with, with new year resolutions, there's a lot of energy behind it because there's other people who are doing it. You know, sometimes at work, people will share like, Oh, what's your new year's resolution?
00:19:01
Chris
Don't ask three months later. But if we reframe it to, we're doing a personal evolution, whether it's adopting a brand new behavior, setting these new career goals, setting these new personal goals, that gives us a space in the understanding that it's going to It's going to be a process.
00:19:19
Chris
So evolution is really a mindset of a progress over perfection. And I think that's where a lot of times people get hung up with the resolutions. Is that perfection or this lofty goal? So really, if we think about evolution, we're thinking about small, consistent steps, small, consistent milestones and goals.
00:19:40
Chris
to work towards that greater goal. You know, if I, if I said, you know, my evolution for this year is by the end of the year, I'm going to be 30 pounds lighter. Great. Does it mean I'm going to lose 30 pounds in one month? I hope not. There's probably some medical issues going on or you're spending a lot of money to go see a plastic surgeon, whatever it may be. But if I say, Hey,
00:20:02
Chris
30 pounds by the end of the year every three months I have a milestone that's more achievable saying I'm gonna lose three pounds in in two months is much more achievable much more realistic than saying I'm gonna use lose 30 pounds this year other pieces gotta be able to To understand those missteps are part of the process. That's how we grow. That's how we evolve. We need to make those mistakes. We need to learn what actually works.
00:20:28
Chris
And it's really about building these systems, these habits that are going to help us achieve that ultimate goal. Because again, people are asking to make behavioral changes, whether it's a weight loss plan,
00:20:41
Chris
whether it's a career growth plan, whether it's personal change, there's a behavioral change that's involved in it. So we have to be able to take more of a, think about the results that we want to achieve and the behaviors are how we're going to get those results.
00:20:55
Dale Werner
Yeah, and this is this is where the idea of purpose comes in and I love that. I'm going to lose 30 pounds example.
00:21:03
Dale Werner
When you have a purpose behind that, why do I want if you can explain to yourself or explain to somebody in your social network who can be a motivator for you and a reminder for you to stay on track that hey, I have this purpose. I want to lose 30 pounds because I want to be able to do some activity more easily or I want to feel better about myself at the end of the year than I did at the end of last year.
00:21:32
Dale Werner
That purpose is what is most important. That is the thing that you're going to rely back on. That's the thing that's going to stick in your mind on why am I doing this? Yes, I want to lose 30 pounds. I was 180 180 pounds or 210 pounds or whatever the number is at the end of last year. I want to be 30 pounds lighter than that. That's my goal.
00:21:55
Dale Werner
At the end of the year, but why am I doing that? You're not just doing it because you want to lose 30 pounds. There's some bigger motivation. And that bigger motivation is the thing that's easy to explain the thing that somebody in your social network, whether it be a family member or a friend or hiring a professional trainer or nutritionist, whatever that might be to help you achieve those goals.
00:22:17
Dale Werner
That's the thing that's going to help. They're going to remind you about on why you're doing it when it gets tough, when it gets hard, when you fall off the wagon and you've actually gained two pounds at whatever weigh in that you're you're doing in this hypothetical scenario. It's that.
00:22:32
Dale Werner
motivation, that broader purpose, that broader meaning to you that is gonna help you stay connected that New Year's resolutions don't typically have. The other thing to remember is that the goal has multiple avenues to achieve it. You can say, I am going to lose 30 pounds by running or by going to the gym more, but that might not be sufficient. It might be, I need to change my eating habits,
00:22:59
Dale Werner
as well as the way that I'm going to the gym. Or you know what, maybe I don't need to buy that 400 calorie coffee.
00:23:09
Dale Werner
that I get three times a week from major coffee chain. And by the way, I'll also save some more money so I can put that into paying for my nutritionist or paying for my fitness coach or whatever it is that I'm going to do. You can find multiple avenues to achieving that same goal where you don't typically do that with a New Year's resolution.
00:23:29
Chris
And I think this really aligned with organizations and work.
00:23:33
Chris
And personally, we call it resolutions. For organizations, those are our strategic goals for the year. And again, it aligns very much so when we're trying to make these behavioral changes to get this outcome. For an organization, very similar. Hey, we have this,
00:23:50
Chris
annual goal that we wanna achieve. It's not gonna be achieved in the first three months. And as leaders, we have to
Framing Goals for Long-Term Success
00:23:56
Chris
understand that also. We have to encourage, we have to build these structures for our team members to perform the behaviors to get the results we're looking for. So we have to create these structures. We have to create the right motivation, the right environment
00:24:10
Chris
But as leaders, we also have to understand that these changes, these goals going to be achievable in the first month.
00:24:18
Chris
And a lot of times the way organizations, leaders frame these goals make it feel like they have to be achieved immediately, that the behavioral change has to happen immediately.
00:24:29
Chris
And what you end up having is a lot of people stuck, people not sure how to move forward or being overly focused focused on the mistakes opposed to the progress.
00:24:41
Chris
So in an organization, we have to also really evolve way that we're having these conversations, the way that we're presenting these goals.
00:24:49
Chris
and finding the right motivation to keep people motivated to to achieving these goals.
00:24:53
Dale Werner
Yeah, there are really two parts of this and so I like the idea of purpose and this holds true in organizations too. You have to have your purpose on why you are doing an organizational change, why you are evolving your processes or your products or how you're working together as a team. There has to be an underlying reason because you want to improve your workplace environment. You want to help people be more productive and stop wasting time in nonproductive areas. So that purpose is a core element of being able to evolve.
00:25:31
Dale Werner
But the other is also priority. You have to create capacity. You have to stop doing some old things and you have to make room for the new thing. This is where I think a lot of organizations really don't do it well, is that they say, we are going to try to accomplish this big strategic goal. We'll throw some money at it. But we're going to put a bunch of people working on it that have full time jobs. And we're going to expect them to not drop the ball on all the other things that they're doing and make time for this new thing. And this holds true with personal.
00:26:08
Dale Werner
with personal progress as well with personal evolution we say I want to do this big thing or I want to do this thing regularly but I don't manage my time so that this thing becomes a priority I allow other things to become a priority to use my running example I can easily make an excuse to myself that it's either too hot or too cold now there are some times when it makes sense not to go out and run if I'm injured I've got knee issues, right? So when my knee hurts, I don't want to go out and run. And it's I probably shouldn't. But if it's a little too warm, I can probably still go out and run or get up early in the morning and go run the next day or or at night. But
00:26:52
Dale Werner
At work, we do the same thing. We make excuses. Well, I've got a hundred email I got to get through. So I didn't work on that project or boy, I couldn't coordinate all of the resources that I need. So it keeps getting put off because I can't get the right people in the room. And that's because that thing, that evolution, that change hasn't been made a priority and we haven't created the capacity to focus on that change.
00:27:19
Chris
And think along that vein, often when we have goals, they are focused on people's wants, your own personal wants, or what people need or what you need. They're not so much focused on what's the outcome of this.
00:27:33
Dale Werner
Sorry, keep talking. I just have to go tell
00:27:58
Chris
Now, when we reframe what the goal looks like, it's more tangible. It gives us clear timelines. gives us measurable milestones and achievements.
00:28:09
Chris
And a matter of fact, it lets us compare. Like if I want to be in shape, Hey, if I can run a 5k in under 30 minutes, awesome. Let's say I run it at 28 minutes. Hey, the next 5k that I'm going to run in the next three months, let's get it under 25 minutes. So you're adjusting the goal based on where you're at. Let's say I couldn't run it into 30 minutes. Okay. Well, let's see if the next time I run it, I can beat that time.
00:28:32
Chris
In the workplace, we also have to really look at what kind of results we're looking for and framing our behaviors to actually reach those outcomes.
00:28:41
Chris
And going back to Dr. D's point of understanding the whys. That's really our compass. That's our compass to our goals. It's a compass to our actions. Without it, a lot of these resolutions, a lot of these strategic goals feel a little bit hollow. It feels like an exercise that really doesn't have a huge impact. And that really leads to a lot of times why
00:29:04
Chris
These New Year resolutions end February.
00:29:07
Chris
Our beliefs, that's guiding the how, how we're going to behave, how we're going to achieve these goals. It guides our decisions. So it's really about aligning our purpose, aligning our beliefs with our actions to create a strong foundation.
00:29:22
Chris
That's meaningful towards progress.
00:29:24
Dale Werner
Yeah, absolutely. And as you were talking about goals, I want to harken back a moment to the, I want to run a 5K in under 30 minutes. Those are really two goals.
00:29:35
Dale Werner
And one presupposes the other. The first is that you can run a 5K. If you can't run a 5K today, you can tell yourself you want to achieve the goal of 5K in under 30 minutes. But which one of those is more important? Are you a failure if you run a 5K, if you can't run a 5K today, but you can run a 5K by the end of April and you do it in 32 minutes? Is that a fail when you couldn't run a 5K before?
00:30:03
Dale Werner
No, accomplishment means you made progress and that progress is the priority goal. You can't have it the other way. You can't say I'm going to run a 5K in under 30 minutes and then do something in under 30 minutes and say I accomplished the goal, but you can do it the other way around. And the same way holds true as you were talking about with beliefs, which thing is connected to the purpose The purpose of a change at work, evolution at work, is about being connected to something, providing a customer a better experience, improving employee engagement in the organization to reduce turnover.
00:30:46
Dale Werner
These things are are all purpose driven when you say we're going to change this process from X to Y and people aren't getting it or getting on board with it. It's because it's not connected to their purpose. It's not connected to the way that they think about a problem or understanding of the problem that they're trying to solve. And so.
00:31:46
Chris
Absolutely, and I think there's an opportunity. To rethink how we set these goals. To be a little bit more dynamic. And in reality, give ourselves a little bit of space, a little bit, a little bit of grace. When we set these goals that are too rigid.
00:32:00
Chris
It sets us up for failure.
00:32:02
Chris
So part of it is taking a step back.
Flexibility and Time Management in Goal Setting
00:32:05
Chris
Break things down to smaller steps. break this goal into a weekly or monthly milestone. Opposed to being super rigid about like, if I'd only achieved this, then I failed.
00:32:15
Chris
And we see this often in the workplace where we set a goal, whether it's a performance goal, sales goal, different metrics, KPIs within an organization.
00:32:25
Chris
We set them as the goal But the reality is these are our stretch goals.
00:32:30
Chris
But we frame it to our team members, our employees, this is the goal we have to achieve. But we don't pause and say, is this actually achievable within the timeframe? Is this achievable with the resources, the people, the information, the capacity that we currently have?
00:32:46
Chris
When we do our own personal growth, we set these lofty goals also that may not really feel realistic. And it may be a goal that someone else sets, or we feel that someone that we look up to set this goal. So we're going to set the same goal without understanding that there's different circumstances.
00:33:04
Chris
So to really create this evolution ourselves and our organizations and our teams, we have to take a step back and really evaluate how we're setting these goals. We need to shift away from these rigid goals something that's more an adaptable goal that allows for growth.
00:33:21
Dale Werner
Yeah, I call those purpose-driven goals. So if it's connected to a purpose and you're looking for a result rather than, you still need to have some framing and timing around it, but you're looking for a result and you're looking for why is that result important. That gives you the flexibility to find multiple paths to get there.
00:33:41
Dale Werner
and connected to a bigger reason why. Because if people can't see, particularly if you're working with other people and trying to accomplish a shared goal, if they can't see why that's important, then it's lost. You will not achieve it because you're just trying to apply a system to something that can't be systematized or people aren't going to buy into or feel exceptionally motivated.
00:34:05
Dale Werner
around and they won't be looking for other alternative ways to try to achieve the same goal that might actually accomplish it faster, cheaper, more efficiently and maybe even with a better outcome than you were expecting or what you were planning.
00:34:19
Chris
So I'm curious, Dr. D. What I hear from many people I've coached, many people I work with, even to myself, don't have time. I don't have the space to be able to do this. Like I have this goal, but there's only so many hours in the day.
00:34:34
Chris
What would you recommend a person do?
00:34:35
Dale Werner
Yeah, so you have to ask yourself if you have a goal but you don't have time for it or you're unwilling to make time for it. Is it really that important to you or are those other things that you're doing more important to you? I would argue that most people have capacity in their day to take on something that they aren't doing already. And that might require giving up something that they're already doing. And I can imagine that many of us have
00:35:07
Dale Werner
Behaviors or activities that we can probably get rid of even though if we don't know how to get rid of them but we can make time to accomplish that goal if we can't make time then It doesn't it's really not an important goal to us. So we probably shouldn't be doing it. We should give ourselves The the ability to say I'm not going to do that goal but If it is important to you, it's important to prioritize the time. And I think where a lot of people and a lot of organizations make mistakes is they have unreasonable expectations about how much time it's going to take to accomplish something. There's an old
00:35:49
Dale Werner
saying, and I don't know where it came from, but it goes somewhere along the lines of nine women in one month don't make a baby. It's easier to evolve. And this is why we call it an evolution instead of a revolution or a resolution is because you give it a little bit of time every day, every week.
00:36:12
Dale Werner
People think, well, I need to dedicate an hour and a half or 10 hours to accomplish whatever goal it is. And I think in the same way that you have a financial budget, you should have a time budget. I have X amount of hours in a week. I have to sleep, so that takes up time. I have to eat, that takes up time. I have to do X, Y, and Z at work, so that takes up time. But this goal is important to me. I can either,
00:36:38
Dale Werner
say once a month, spend four hours working on this thing, or I can spend 15 minutes a day working on this thing. And the reality is, most people procrastinate. Many people procrastinate. And then they get up to a deadline and say, OK, I'm going to spend four or six or eight hours trying to get this done. And then the task seems so daunting that they never actually get started. When the reality is, if you can start small,
00:37:03
Dale Werner
take 15, 20, 30 minutes and say, I'm gonna spend 30 minutes today or 15 minutes a day working towards this thing. Then over the course of a month, you will accomplish those four hours or those six hours. And you can forgive yourself if I did not, if something came up and I couldn't do it yesterday, I didn't have the 15 minutes or the 20 minutes to apply to it, but I'm going to make it doubly important to do it today. And I'm gonna spend that 15 or 20 minutes working towards that goal.
00:37:32
Dale Werner
It might not feel like you're making big enough progress. You might not feel like you're making the same kind of progress that you are if you spent eight hours working towards something. But at the end of several months, at 15 minutes a day, that progress will add up and you will find you are much farther along than you would have been even if you spent a considerable chunk of time working on something. It also gives you a second benefit in that you can adapt your approach as you go. If I sit down to try to accomplish something and I spend four or six or eight hours trying to do it, I'm probably gonna be fairly inefficient at it because I'm trying to figure it out while I go. Whereas if I spend 30 minutes, four days a week working on something,
00:38:18
Dale Werner
Then I spend 30 minutes. I run into a problem. I have time to think about it. I come back to it. I have a different fresh eye. I have a different fresh approach and I chip away at progress. Again, it doesn't feel like you're making progress, but if you look back at the accomplishment of where you are at the end of a month or two months from where you started, you'll go, man, I got a lot done. But.
00:38:43
Dale Werner
How we budget our time and where we choose to spend our time means rather than picking up the phone and scrolling through social media, I'm going to take 20 minutes and work on this thing. Even if it's not, I'm going to sit down in front of my computer. I'm going to pull out a tablet and, or a piece of paper and just write down my thoughts. Progress comes in a lot of forms and they come in small chunks.
00:39:05
Chris
And I think that's important that people understand that.
00:39:08
Chris
Progress is small steps. It's not achieving the the big goal on crunch time. You know, I think back to my college years of, oh, I got a paper due at midnight. Well, I better start at eight o'clock at night that that same day that it's due.
00:39:25
Chris
If I would have broke down those four hours into, you know what, I'm gonna work on this an hour a day. It's less daunting. And it also takes away the rigidity feeling that if I don't achieve this, if I don't do this, then I'm not moving forward.
00:39:40
Chris
We have to create this flexibility in ourselves. We have to create flexibility in the workplace that things get done at different paces.
Reflecting and Adjusting Goals
00:39:48
Chris
The other component is, yeah, time is a resource. People often forget that. That time is a resource. When you think about your workplace, they are paying you for your time complete tasks. They're paying you for your time to work.
00:40:02
Chris
So rethinking how we structure our goals, rethinking our own mindset us really evolve, opposed to just trying to check the box or, hey, we have this New Year's resolution that we're trying to accomplish. So I think it's important that we look at it and there's some, some practical steps to this evolution.
00:40:22
Chris
When it comes to our goals, define dynamic goals, goals that can fit in your life, goals that fit in the environment if you're thinking about goals in the workplace, while understanding that these goals don't live in a vacuum.
00:40:35
Chris
And really taking a focus on these small, consistent actions You know, if you take 15 minutes a day, it adds up. By the end of the week, you're looking, you know, just a five day work week, 15 minutes a day. You're looking at an hour and 15 minutes. Which a lot of times people say, I don't have an hour throughout the day to do it. That's fine. Break it down for the whole week.
00:40:58
Chris
to your point. Yeah, there's times where I'm sitting mindlessly scrolling through social media, looking at news articles, posts that I could probably be using to do other things. So understand small steps. I think it's also important that we reflect. You take a pause and go, where are we? What are we doing? Is this working or not? You know, whenever I've gone into a pretty regular gym routine. It's taken some evolution. It's taken some some adjustments. I know myself. I don't want to go into gyms crowded. So don't see me. You're not going to see me there between the hours of five and eight p.m.
00:41:31
Chris
You're also not going to see me there early in the morning because I'm not a morning person. So it's like literally a 15 minute gap in the day that's like perfect for me. But again, I'm being facetious on that. But it's about finding what works, finding the timeframes that work, and doing the check-in and adjust as needed. And I think with a lot of our resolutions, our goals, often too rigid. And if it doesn't work out in this exact way, then it's not working.
00:42:19
Chris
celebrating these wins that ultimately build up into that goal.
00:42:24
Dale Werner
Yeah. And I think the, the, I went a week without having a drink, but then I had one, a resolution that would be a fail and evolution would be all right. I went seven days. I don't want to, let's see if I can go 10 this time and continuing to make progress towards whatever that goal is. And for that person, not having that drink for that amount of time.
00:42:48
Dale Werner
is probably connected to something bigger. And so reminding yourself why I am undergoing this process and why it's better for me to stick with it, even if I misstep or even if I'm making incremental progress will help you achieve that goal more realistically and more reliably than if you just try to take it as a binary resolution.
00:43:12
Dale Werner
So it's really great conversation today, Dr. C. I think we're done here. Let's close it up. I'm Dr. D.
00:43:18
Chris
And I'm Dr. C. We'll keep dissecting leadership so we can keep evolving.