Busting the myths of goal-setting, with Dr. Carla Fowler

Episode 69.  “I think goals are a useful tool, but like any tool you have to decide where is the appropriate place to deploy them and and how are they serving you?”

Dr. Carla Fowler is an MD PhD and elite executive coach. For the last decade, Carla has been a secret weapon for scores of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other senior leaders. Her unique approach combines the latest research from performance science with timeless best practices to help top performers level up and achieve their goals.

In part one of their conversation, Dr. Fowler shares:

- “I often like to look at a goal rather than saying, "Oh, this is a mark I must meet, or I'm going to feel bad about myself.” To say,  this is a challenge I'm setting out for myself. I am going to try to meet it, but the point of the exercise is what am I learning trying to get there?”

- “… performance discounting is where you look at all the stuff you accomplished yesterday or maybe over the past year and you're like, “Yeah, that was fine. That was great. But I haven't done anything yet today.What about next year?”  You basically have taken all that effort and the things that felt like big accomplishments, and WERE big accomplishments, and you just discount the heck outta them.”

- “ … one of the fundamental principles of performance that I work with people on is this idea of brutal focus because I believe that, the gains and results they're gonna produce in the future are more likely going to come from simplifying and from making more potent what they choose to do versus saying “I gotta work harder and I gotta put more stuff on my plate.”

 - “This idea that we can just go from goal to goal to goal and always have a hundred percent surety about what the next goal should be, I think is kind of a fallacy.”


- “When we can run some experiments and actually say, "How does this (goal) make me feel? Is this goal bringing out better effort from me? Is it keeping me focused and on track more? Has it made it clear what are the small steps I need to do every day consistently to keep moving in the direction that I want?”  Those things can be really powerful about goals.”

Dr. Fowler has graciously gifted listeners with a free download, The 8 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Choosing a Coach (and how to avoid them!). 

Be sure to connect with Dr. Fowler on  Linked In and Twitter

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