Goals Suck

Why the Obsession with Goal-Setting Is a Flawed Approach to Productivity and Life in General

By: M.F. Stone

Narrated by: Matt Stone

Length: 1 hr and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Goals Suck!

When you have sex, do you take a timer and a legal pad into the bedroom to log the number of hip thrusts and grunts? Do you compile all of your data at the end of the week and plot it into a graph? Do you have goals for the number of times you have sex per month, the number of partners you have, or keep close tabs on how many minutes you can last for? Of course you don’t. The very thought of setting and tracking goals in the bedroom is a complete absurdity!

Why is That?

Why does that strike you as absurd? You don’t need goals in order to be motivated to have sex do you? It’s naturally enjoyable and requires no such outside motivation. More importantly, the thought of setting goals and tracking them would ruin the whole experience wouldn’t it? But you set goals in all kinds of other areas. Why?

The Problem with Goals

Goals are something we use to incentivize ourselves to do things we wouldn’t otherwise have the desire to do. There is something inherently wrong with this at its core. Goal-setting and tracking merely works to ensure that we spend more time doing things we aren’t truly passionate about.

And if setting goals in areas that we do enjoy can take away from the natural enjoyment of those activities, and ruin our spontaneity, might setting goals actually make the actions required to obtain them less enjoyable? The answer to that question is “yes.”

The Solution

If you stop setting goals, and focus on doing what you love with vigor and enthusiasm just for the sake of doing it, you ensure that your enjoyment of those activities stays high. And if your enjoyment stays high, you keep doing it consistently for years, you don’t procrastinate, and you can achieve remarkable levels of productivity - not to mention you are literally more efficient and intelligent when you are engaged in activities for pleasure’s sake.

©2014 M.F. Stone (P)2014 M.F. Stone

sucking goals

nice listen. simple but important points well made in a short period of time. a piece of work of which to be proud.

Interesting

I've been deep into goals and mastery, and while I'm not 100% persuaded by the author's proposition, I think it's definitely worth both having disconfirming evidence to what we believe and there were some valuable points anyway.

Goals Suck vs SMART Goals

It is quite interesting (and contradicting) that Matt produced this book after narrating the SMART Goals book written by SJ Scott - I don't understand why Matt agreed to narrate that when he never believed it. I guess money talks. Well about Matt's book, it has a few good points but it is not applicable for all aspects in life. Matt should have written something like 'Why TOO MUCH obssession with goals is bad'.

Interesting read/listen

The author took an interesting perspective on goals and success that I had never heard before. The title says it all. I appreciate his philosophy and was given a lot to ponder. I didn’t connect with the style of writing, it was a bit to casual and masculine for me, but I was intrigued by the message none the less.
If you are a driven person, but don’t fit into the a-type, competitive mold, you may find this worthwhile.

Wake-up call to all goal seekers

Matt points out the ridiculousness of goal setting, where goals have a tendency of taking the fun out of things that you like to do. The book is short and to the point,

Stop fighting against your passion

Takeaway:

-If you have to set goals to get stuff done, you probably don't actually like doing it. Don't waste your life doing stuff you don't really like instead of something you're passionate about!

-If you apply goals to something you ARE passionate about, you'll suck all the fun out of it, eventually killing your passion.

-Goals shift your motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic: instead of enjoying the process, you focus on the end result you're hoping for, and the process suddenly becomes drudgery.

-When you pursue what interests you, when it interests you, you maximize learning and information retention. This makes self-directed study more effective than someone else's curriculum.

-Follow your passion: do what you ACTUALLY love to do, not what you or others think you "should" do (unless you're a serial killer). You'll get a lot more done and enjoy your life more. (Following your passion "feels like playing a video game" — you get sucked in and need a "mother figure" to remind you to eat and sleep.) Note: passions change and evolve. Embrace it.


-Yes, goals work, you get stuff done, but that doesn't mean goals are the best way. In the long run, relying on goals either leads you to eventually burn out, or worse, lie on your death bed regretting that you never answered your calling.


It's a short book at a good price. Just buy it. It might completely change your life. If not, at least you'll get plenty of 80's movie references and a Scooby-Doo impression.

If you are goal oriented this book is for you

I really liked how funny Matt Stone was but it was also incredibly insightful and an interesting outlook. Easy listen, hilarious and helpful... perfect!

My awesome wealth without setting goals... WTF?

Sometimes there are some people so broken down from life that setting goals is what is keeping breath in their bodies. Not everyone can set around day dreaming or changing careers at the last minute to find themselves. Basically reads like a memoir of a lazy ass rich kid who thinks he can make it through life without having to do things that you basically don't want to do. This book may be for some but definitely not for me.

Overboard

I wouldn't recommend this book only because he didn't have valid examples to persuade why goals suck. His use of personal narratives where not relatable-me. And most of his examples were of pure extremism, no moderation.
However, if I were to recommend this book, I would recommend to people going through a life crisis, soul searching, or prove ledges. I say this because if you are already established or "come from money" then the methods are more likely to work