They say military service prepares people for any professional scenario. Former Marine infantry and combat veteran, Andrew Wittman, has lived quite the lift post-discharge. As well as being the author of “Ground Zero Leadership: CEO of You”, Wittman now coaches and advises CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and high ranking executives of numerous other companies alike. The following is an excerpt from a video transcript where Wittman explains why goal setting is a counter-productive use of time, and how it can be better utilised in achieving your objectives:
“Setting goals is the biggest waste of time on planet Earth. People are shocked when I say that. Setting goals is a complete waste of time if you don’t have a target destination. So I say it like this: Have you ever gone on a vacation and you didn’t know where you were going? And if that ever happened, how did you pack?
So I don’t know where I’m going. Here’s my goals. I’m going to set goals of getting a surfboard, getting skis, getting hunting rifles, getting fishing rods. OK, all those took time to research, I spent resources, I got them, “Yay, I accomplished my goals.” “Where you going?” “We’re going rock climbing.” Right? So, these goals did not help me.
In fact, I wasted valuable hours of my life and valuable resources I could have spent getting me to my destination on stuff that was a complete waste. So now think of it like this: If I said, “We’re going to Rome in 2 weeks.” All the goals self-populate.
What do we need to do? We’ve got to get our passport and visa. We’ve got to get plane tickets. We’ve got to get a hotel. We’ve got to figure out where we’re going to eat — and what we’re going to go see. So the goals self-populate. So stop wasting time trying to come up with goals. Just come up with a destination and a target of where you want to be and all your goals will self-populate.”
Original video via Business Insider.
