Is goal setting that important?
I’ve been reading a book called Training for Ultra by Rob Steger. His story is about going from being very stressed out, unhealthy and barely able to run even a few minutes to running an ultramarathon.
An ultramarathon is anything longer than a normal 26.2 mile marathon, but many of them are hundreds of miles long and take days to complete. Along the way, runners stop at aid stations to refuel and maybe catch a quick nap before they’re off again. Some get lost and disoriented along the way. Sometimes they even fall asleep while running. I like reading books like this when I’m doing something hard because it makes my thing feel a bit easier.
I’m fascinated in particular by Rob’s story. He wasn’t a well regarded runner deciding to take on a new challenge. He was about as far as you can be from being able to run hundreds of miles. He set a ridiculous, unachievable goal. How was he actually able to do it? A big part of it is how he thinks of goals.
Here’s how he describes them.
“A goal is an amazing thing, If harnessed properly, it can boost us out of bed on the days that we want to pull up the covers and keep our eyes squeezed shut. It can motivate us to aspire beyond our comfort zones. I enjoy setting goals that seem out of reach because I do not fear not accomplishing them. I fear crossing off the last item on my bucket list and living without anything big to work toward.”
Those last two sentences blew me away. I reread them at least a dozen times. He fears not having goals more than he fears not reaching them.
I was skeptical at first. Wouldn’t the act of setting an unachievable goal just create an excuse to not make an effort. “I never said it was achievable, did I?”
Then I started to weigh the pros and cons in my mind. For some, it might lower accountability. For others, loosening the grip of achievability allows us to take bigger swings. Instead of doing the same old same old because it’s worked before, it’s a license to take a chance. That applies to everything from product decisions at work to running an ultramarathon. Rob had no business setting that goal, but he did it anyway and look what happened.
Rob’s reframe opens up so many possibilities. All those goals that have been cut from the team get a new tryout. New goals get to pass through a new filter. The more I let this concept sink in the more I love it.
I wrote recently about decisions. My stance is that we put too much weight on decisions and not enough on what we do after the decision. If we reframe decisions as a way to move forward and get new information for the next decision, we make more incremental and informed ones.
What if we reframed goals in a similar way and focused more on the race and less on the finish?
There are many popular goal setting frameworks for work and life. Some include:
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound)
OKR’s (Objectives and Key Results)
BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)
I’ve used all of these frameworks at one point or another, but now I see them a little differently. They feel safe. Let’s take SMART, for example.
Rob’s goal:
Specific ✅
Run an ultramarathon
Measurable ✅
The distance of the race and the training required
Achievable ❌
It was very much Unachievable when he set it (but he still did it)
Relevant ✅
It definitely mattered to him
Time-bound ✅
The race date was the race date
He had 4 out of 5, but that A is a BIG one. Given where he was at the time he set the goal, it wouldn’t have been a goal at all if he kept the A.
I think he created a new new framework. Let’s call it SMURT, because everything needs a good acronym.
We’re not far from new year’s resolution time, so my challenge to you is to include at least one SMURT goal in that list for 2026. 🎉