The Costs of Goal Setting

Setting specific and difficult goals can lead to better performance, but it can also create tunnel vision and blind us to alternative goals. This is illustrated by the story of the speaker, Emmanuel, who set a goal to be drafted in rounds one through three in the NFL. Despite committing 13 months of his life to this goal, he ended up tearing his quad and getting drafted in the sixth round. This failure had a significant negative impact on his self-esteem and self-efficacy. As a result, he no longer sets goals and instead focuses on having objectives without limitations, believing that living a life without goals avoids failure.