Many people practice goal setting and accomplishment, and know well what downsides exist in the typical approach. Goals are great for motivating the start of a new endeavor, but their power begins to wane as you progress. You can experience sudden reductions in goal-based motivation when you encounter unexpected obstacles and even when you achieve what you set out to do. Furthermore, fixation on a goal can make it more difficult to notice and adapt to new information that would modify or even cause you to replace your goal when needful.
A purpose focus mitigates the downsides of goal setting. When you are purpose-focused, you more evenly maintain a sense of progress and motivation throughout the path to achieving a goal and, once you get there, your connection to the greater purpose will impart the momentum needed to roll right into the very next goal. When your goals are purpose-based, you will not hesitate to revise or replace a goal when it becomes clear that it no longer the best way to orient yourself to your purpose, because the changes better attain what is most important to you.
A focus on purpose is essential to maintaining motivation and meaning during the journey. It is how you achieve the often discussed but rarely explained appreciation of the process, not just the outcome. The problem with traditional goal setting is that these goals stand alone instead of being connected to an overarching purpose.
In order to extract all the value of purposed-based goals, you need to align yourself with the desired outcome by actually enumerating and fully engaging in tasks that you are convinced will lead to the outcome you seek. While you engage only partially with these tasks, or when they do not convince you of eventual victory, you will not experience the interim feelings of fulfillment that, in aggregate, outweigh the payoff at the goal’s accomplishment. Partial engagement feeds together with less-than-perfect confidence in your eventual victory, fueling a negative feedback loop leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.
The reward along the way, when properly engaged, will dwarf the reward at the end of the path. Goals will get you there, as long as they are aligned toward and prioritized according to impact on your purpose.