When I started racing cars, I thought it would be great if I could just settle in mid-pack in a respectable gentleman’s cup series. After all, racing to me was all about getting access to long stretches of flow, that sensation of being so completely engrossed in an activity that you lose track of time and place.
It didn’t take long before my ambition swelled, and I upped the goal from finishing mid-pack to top 10. Of course, not before taking a brief moment to bask in the glory of reaching that first goal, enjoying success per my own definition. A definition that would surely have qualified as utter failure for many others (what schmuck is happy to be mid-pack among gentlemen?! At the time, me!).
And thus, the goal creep was on. It crept from top 10, to podium, to moving up to a bigger series, a faster car, more downforce, tougher competition, longer races, a better team, and on it went.
The key is that it was all a bite-sized progression. While the ultimate goal might have been entering the 24 hours of Le Mans (a goal that itself has crept from entering, to finishing, to winning the class), that wasn’t really part of the detailed goal posts that has driven the pursuit forward.
You can think of goal creep as the test-driven development of a real-life pursuit. In TDD, you don’t try to design your entire program upfront. Instead, you just write a simple test and then implement just enough code to make that test pass.
Setting small goals, like writing simple tests, keeps the pursuit from becoming overwhelming. Making the mental jump of going straight from playing Forza Motorsports to getting on the grid at Le Mans is an insurmountable idea for most. It certainly was for me.
But these small, underwhelming goals trick your brain into constantly experiencing a steady flow of success. It’s incredibly important to celebrate these successes, however modest, as they’re the fuel that’ll keep you going and reaching for more.
The same was true when we started working on Basecamp and I was learning Ruby. If the goal had been to create an application used by millions and a framework that would rock an industry, I would never have put down the Xbox controller and gotten started.
Even our economic goals were incredibly modest when Basecamp launched. While others were thinking of millions of users and millions of dollars, we had the goal of making $4,000/month from Basecamp after a whole year.
We met that goal in a couple of weeks and were able to celebrate a success that would have been utter failure to many others. And after a year, when Basecamp made just enough money to pay all the bills and relieve us from having to do consulting work on the side, we celebrated again.
I guess the point is to define your own goal posts. Don’t be so eager to adopt the goals of others. They are starting from a different baseline than you. If you adopt “shoot for the stars,” you might well run out of propulsion before you even get to the yard.
Hjörtur Hilmarsson
on 05 Nov 12Great post, thanks! I feel that goals help me to push things forward, but setting to big goals can be stressful and cause non-action, witch is the opposite of the reason for setting goals.
Chuka Odogwu
on 05 Nov 12Excellent post.
You don’t go out and build the best wall. You lay a brick-a-day, as perfectly as a brick can be laid. Eventually, you’ll have a great wall!
Tom Ordonez
on 05 Nov 12Good points and I agree the most on the last paragraph. “Don’t adopt the goals of others”. During Code Academy/Starter League class. I was working full time, married with children. I didn’t have all the time in the world to learn how to code like my single kid-free classmates. The class was going fast and it seems to me that people were using a lot of shortcuts with the goal of hacking an app in the shortest time. Instead I decided to step back and focus on the foundations of programming. I still am. Although I still cannot create a RoR app from scratch, I can put together a simple blog, solve problems in C with for loops and play with other people’s apps (git clone). To me the best way to learn has been setting up small goals, rather than getting myself involved in some monster project.
Davide
on 05 Nov 12In the Alexander Technique there’s the idea of always working on the task that is at hand, rather than on the “ultimate” one. The same is true in Aikido and, I believe, most martial arts; you’re supposed to do all that is your power to, say, keep your stance, then move you hips, then slide away, etc. If you accomplish all small goals, one by one, you’ll achieve the final one, without directly pursuing it.
Derick
on 05 Nov 12Well, that’s one way to brag about having a 7-figure race car.
Glenn Meder
on 05 Nov 12Very cool David.
I view this from a spiritual perspective. Focus on the here and now, and know that there is always another step to take. Also, be grateful for what you have and what life hands to you.
GeeIWonder
on 05 Nov 12Some things happen pervasively at such small discrete physical and/or temporal scales that you are hardpressed to notice the difference between frames.
Other things ONLY work by large quanta on or beyond the immediate scale.
The question is not whether each of these truths exist—they both do and at a fundamental physical level (or what appears to be one) of the universe we live in. The question is which kind of thing is your problem/process/whatever.
Once you know which it is, you know what scale to seek change at.
Tammy
on 05 Nov 12I love the idea of breaking down the tasks into not so scary bits. The system you described is what I practice, only I all too often forget to enjoy achieving the mini goals along the way. I know there is always one behind it.
In dance, the common wisdom is if you don’t enjoy the way you move now, just stop. You don’t wake up after winning the world championship and then suddenly like what you are doing. It makes so much sense, and it really emphasizes that life is what is happening as we go down the path to the next goal.
Robert
on 05 Nov 12Great post! I had a conversation about this sort of this just this morning with my wife.
My kids are fairly athletic so we put a lot energy into that for them. We match them with coaches and teams that will allow them to develop to their max ability.
I told my wife that I don’t care what the specific thing that they like or pursue I just want them to have the experience of pursuing something they enjoy, working hard at it, and having success.
The key is making sure we allow them to define their own goals and what is success. In their terms, not someone elses goals.
Tyler Rooney
on 05 Nov 12Shawn Archor has some interesting work on the topic of positive thinking including the value of setting attainable goals and how reinforced success wires your brain for further success.
I realize this all sounds like standard “self help” drivel but he does reference large amounts of academic research on the topic.
His Ted Talk and book on Amazon
D. Lambert
on 05 Nov 12So was this you I saw at Road America in August? I’d assumed you were just a sponsor … sorry – I never made the connection. http://gallery.lambertpix.com/road-america-alms-august-2012/IMG_5815.jpg.php
Francis
on 05 Nov 12I’d hope 37signals believes in the mantra of setting individual small tasks to accomplish … Given that their primary product (Basecamp) is a ToDo app.
Tony
on 05 Nov 12The act of setting goals is using your conscious mind to set your unconscious mind to achieving the task. Your unconscious mind does all of your real thinking for you. It will present you with ideas which you can then use or refuse.
The process of goal setting is the process of being able to visualize from where you are to where you want to be.
It can be described in detail as:
Selecting the goal and then reducing it to achievable steps. Without this step the goal will seem unattainable. Reducing it to the ridiculous is a tool to achieve this. This step assures the motivation to continue your task. This is imperative for larger goals.
More process would be: Asking your self, why do I not already have this goal? The answers will be the learnings you will have to accomplish on your journey.
The learnings each will need to be your milestones as you continue your trek.
Once you know what it is that has to be done, the next step is to define the tasks in terms of how long it will take you to do each milestone. Generally this will be estimated and is usually longer than it will actually take. You mentioned this in your article.
The next step is to define why it is you are doing this goal. So list all the reasons this is important to you. These answers need to include the tangible as well as the intangible rewards you will be receiving. Be sure to list them all here. this will be your motivations in detail. After doing this step you will be able to answer the question … Is this task really something I want to do. After all, you know the task, the obstacles, the time frame, and your rewards. You have actually completed the task in your mind already. So you have now experienced what it is going to be like after the goal is yours.
Supposing that you decide to continue the next process is to get there as quickly as possible. This requires using your subconscious mind as efficiently as possible. There are a few tools to help this process along.
Assuming your subconscious mind understand pictures as well as words the next step is to remind your self as often as possible of your goal.
For the visual part. Create a visualization poster by getting magazines of your personal liking, and go thru them selecting pictures and words which remind you of the goal. Cut them out and after you have enough, Select the ones which you think will remind you of what it will be like having already accomplished your goal. Post this in your bedroom. It will be the last thing your unconscious mind sees before you go to sleep and arise in th morning. This uses your sleep time to focus on thoe goal.
Also get some 3×5 cards and write down the goal and a short reminder of the rewards you will enjoy. Di this as a snappy saying of your choice. these will be placed every where you go all day long. Such as your mirror where you shave, the refridgerator, the rear view mirror of your car, in your wallet … well you get the idea right.
The last thing you need is a place to write down your milestones as you achieve them. This is useful for those days when you are not quite up to speed when you arise in the morning, and might be suffering from some negative internal dialog which will take your mind away from the goal you are after. The writing of the milestones will return your mind to the world where you live, that is reality and serves as a way out of bad feelings which do not serve you well.
Talk is a useful tool, but our short term memory is very limited. Writing down your goals and the details of the steps to attain them will crystallize your thinking. This in turn will provide the motivation (motive to action) which generates action.
Well good luck on your journeys. Here is to your best … of course.
John Harrington
on 06 Nov 12This works well as long as you remember to omit a comma after goal.
Dan
on 06 Nov 12Reading this post feels coincidental because I’m just fully realizing this myself now. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about Clayton Christensen’s story about how he chose to forego his college championship basketball game in favor of going to church. While the decision was tough at the time, he reasoned that once he crossed that line, every time a conflict arose an internal debate would ensue. If he never crossed the line, then it was always an easy decision to make- he simply would never miss going to church.
Even though I’m not religious, I think the lesson there is extremely important. The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that success is achieved at the fringes. That is, by the countless small decisions we make. Am I going to run today or should I just take today off? While there are always exceptions to every rule, it seems more often than not that the successful people have the discipline to not compromise on the small choices that collectively make a huge difference over time. Great results take time, and are usually the result of countless small achievements that nobody cares about but you.
Jean-Michel GARNIER
on 06 Nov 12Does that mean you practice TDD from time to time?
DHH
on 06 Nov 12Jean-Michel, I practice TDD all the time. Just not All. The. Time.
Wilson Usman
on 07 Nov 12One of my favorite F1 drivers said: “I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s.”-Ayrton Senna
We all have different limits. Different goals.
Ashraf
on 07 Nov 12To keep the momentum going, accomplish small goals which lead to the ultimate goal. I’m rereading Rework now, thanks.
ploogman
on 09 Nov 12DHH – can you make REWORKing the overall design of SVN a goal? Have not been back in a week or so because the solid white and giant floating letter river in the middle of the screen turns this into a virtual poster requiring copious scrolling. Maybe if I stand back 6 feet from my screen it would be better. And I am not meaning to be a troll so please do not troll-avatar me. You and your team post great stuff here but, frankly, I am finding this obnoxious to wade through with this minimalist-gone-berserk theme, at least that is my experience across MBA, iMac and iPhone so far. To read a simple page or a few lines, that would be one thing, but to really read some in-depth content, this ain’t good in my opinion. See ya at the races and bring your game face!
Sarabande Delicioso
on 10 Nov 12“Creep” is pejorative; your post refers to a positive phenomenon. Incongruity. Both the human-noun form (“a weird person”) and materials science term (“what happens to materials under high stress”) aren’t positive.
It’s not creep because creep is slow decay. It’s slow progress.
twiz
on 12 Nov 12Whoa. This post + this post = doubling sales in 12 months.
Pretty clever.
A lot of people use email for project managent, an obvious and direct competitor to Basecamp. So what do you do?
1. You give the company a month of “exploratory time” to work on whatever project they want.
2. In that month you build a better (“competing on easy”) email solution to offer those that still use email to manage projects (and regular users of email).
3. This new email product is then a natural funnel to the project management solution that is Basecamp.
1-3 = doubling sales in 12 months.
Not bad at all. I would’ve said create a todo list app with no discussions, file uploads, calendars, etc. To funnel people (from a different end) that “need to do more” with their projects to Basecamp, but this is much better (I think).
Oh yeah. #4, you charge for the email solution so that even if people don’t use this new “competing on easy” email product they at least hear about it in a who-is-this-company-charging-for-email sort of way. Or you just get regular users paying for email. Another funnel.
I like the idea of using other apps as a marketing tool for your main money making product.
Pretty clever.
This discussion is closed.