Reach the finish line before moving the goal

If you don’t celebrate each victory and success you risk undermining your long-term performance, motivation, and joy. 

One insidious habit I’ve been encouraging myself and my clients to notice is when we change the goal we’ve set for ourselves right before or at the exact moment we achieve the initial goal. For example, deciding your goal was to finish a marathon, and the week of the race you decide to actually set an ambitious time goal because your training has been going well and your fitness is better than you thought. Or getting notification of a promotion at work and in that same instant telling yourself this promotion wasn’t really that important because it’s only a stepping stone for the next promotion…the one you really want. Or setting a goal to place top three in your age group but feeling disheartened you didn’t aim for first while you are still standing on top the podium. I call this moving the finish line. 

Let me provide some nuance. Moving the finish line, by setting bigger more audacious goals, is absolutely something I believe is meaningful, valuable, and necessary to performing at your best, creating satisfaction, and obtaining as much joy from life as we can. It is a habit I preach to my clients as well as something I enact in my personal life. I firmly believe that finding and setting a challenging goal provides an immense amount of meaning, purpose, satisfaction, and cultivates a sense of pride and accomplishment that allows us to feel good about ourselves, approach challenges we cannot control with a helpful mindset, and be a better partner, friend, or parent to those in our lives. 

However, if we move the finish line to early, we risk undermining these very feelings. We undercut our accomplishments when we tell ourselves we should have achieved more before giving ourselves time to celebrate what we have achieved. Over time, this fosters a sense of inadequacy that actually undermines, not promotes, our ability to set and achieve the next goal.     

Because at some point you realize there is always another goal you can set, something you can do better, faster, or stronger. And if you haven’t adequately celebrated your success, then that inner voice that says do it better, faster, and stronger starts to make you feel like you aren’t doing enough. Your achievements aren’t enough. You aren’t enough. And that kind of self-talk does not inspire more hard work, dedication, and sacrifice toward the next goal. Not to mention it can zap the joy from an activity that brings you pleasure.

A more effective approach entails allowing yourself to bask in your accomplishment. Savor it, feel good about it in your bones. You have achieved something that you dreamt about, that you worked hard for, that you sacrificed other things for. You are freaking awesome! There isn’t a one size fits all answer as to how long to let yourself revel in your accomplishment, but try to ensure the time you spent savoring feels that it corresponds with the amount of work and effort that went into your achievement. Maybe it’s one day, one week, or one month. Whatever amount of time it is, try to abstain from trying on new goals until that time is up. 

By allowing yourself to truly savor your accomplishments you’re going to experience more joy, and give yourself staying power to keep getting out there and achieving