I read this response to a goal achiever on Reddit today, and it really makes sense. (The person who wrote it is not named, however the do admit they are in sports psychology.):

“In my life, I never set goals. Instead, I adopt “Themes”. A goal is outcome based. A theme is processed based

Goal – “I want to lose 5 pounds this month”

Theme – “For the next 30 days, I want to immerse myself in living a healthy lifestyle and enjoy it”

Following themes is infinitely better. There’s no pressure, no sense of “succeed or fail”, and it doesn’t make the activity seem like a monotonous task that’s nothing more than a means to an end that I’m forcing myself to do in order to meet some arbitrary outcome.

Lastly, decades of scientific research has conclusively shown that being results-oriented (goals) and being driven primarily by extrinsic motivators is bad in the long term, as it creates the “Overjustification Effect” where one’s desire and motivation to continue doing something decreases over time, both when you don’t reach the outcome and when you do.

Once I understood that a result was nothing but a side-effect of a process, and that I didn’t need to focus on the end result or worry about it because of that, everything became so much easier to do.

Highly recommend this approach, to every aspect of life.”
Any comments or opinions?