Goal setting is the most common advice for success: Set your goals, write down your goals and share your goals. Only doing goal setting can also block you from truly being successful.
It all goes back to the sunk cost fallacy.
The classic economic argument is that you are more likely to invest more into a bad deal because you've already invested in the deal, rather than cut your losses to pursue a better opportunity. You are using your past investment decision to justify your next investment decision.
Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman explores this well in his best-seller, Thinking Fast and Slow.
The twist, however, is that for entrepreneurs, our time is more valuable than our money - and many economic arguments made about resources also apply to where we put our energy.
So, how can you prevent your goals from strangling you? There are a few ways:
- Know under what circumstances you will give up: As Seth Godin notes, establishing your limitations up front actually increases your chances of success
- Create small milestones: As Tim Ferriss recently explained, reachable goals give you enough momentum to move forward (and also may help prevent the sunk cost fallacy, since your investment is smaller)
- Pause and celebrate each step: Acknowledging progress makes you less likely to push further than necessary since you will feel like you have already accomplished something for your efforts