Modern research indicates there is a real downside to setting goals. For the Christian looking forward to everlasting life, the key to spiritual success is found in focusing on the process.

<p>Modern research indicates there is a real downside to setting goals. For the Christian looking forward to everlasting life, the key to spiritual success is found in focusing on the process.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

The Process

Before the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, Brenda Martinez competed in the U.S.

Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon.

Now in 2013, she'd won a silver medal in the 800 meters of the World Championships in Moscow.

So it was fair to assume that she would qualify for Rio.

If you finish in the first 3 in the qualifying event you go.

If you finish outside the first 3, even if you are the world record holder, you don't go.

So it all hinges on the result of the race and the trials.

Now the 800 meters, that's 2 laps around the track.

And with about 100 to go, 120, 130 meters to go, it looked as though Brenda Martinez was certain to qualify.

She was running second, she hadn't even turned on the gas yet.

If she was running in the 700 meters, she would have been off to Rio.

With about 100 meters left to go, she tripped.

She didn't fall over but she stumbled and veered out into lane 4.

Well with about 10 seconds of the race left there was no way she could make up the ground that she'd lost and she finished seventh.

She would not be going to run in Rio in the 800 metres, an event in which she had a very real chance of winning a medal.

What would you have done if you'd been running in her running shoes?

Her hopes and dreams were shattered through no fault of her own.

She'd trained for years for that moment, but her chance to run in the 800 metres and maybe win a medal in Rio was stolen from her.

Now, you'd think she'd feel sorry for herself, but she did not.

She told reporters that she was instead focused on getting ready for the 1500 metres, the other event in which she was competing to try to qualify for Rio.

She said, the track doesn't care about your feelings.

Less than a week later, Brenda Martinez ran in the 1500 meters, basically diving across the finish line to secure third place by just 3 1 hundredths of a second and an opportunity to represent the United States in Rio.

She could have been sucked into a vicious cycle of negative thinking.

But she said, I just quickly let go of what happened in the 800 meters and got back to my routine, to focusing on all the little things I could do that would give me the best chance of running well later in the week.

Brenda Martinez wasn't attached to her goal of making the Olympic team in the 800 meters, or frankly the 1500 meters.

She would focus, and I quote, on all the little things that I could do that would give me the best chance of running well.

It's good to have them, but scientists are beginning to question whether focusing too much on goals runs counter to long-term performance and general well-being.

In a Harvard Business School report titled, The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting, a team of researchers from Harvard, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania found that over-emphasizing goals, especially those based on measurable outcomes, often leads to reduced intrinsic motivation, it leads to irrational risk-taking and unethical behavior.

We've seen this unfold in the real world all the time.

Somebody becomes overly fixated on achieving a goal and loses sight on the reasons for setting out to accomplish it in the first place.

That person becomes driven by the external rewards and recognition they hope to achieve.

In some cases, they'll go to any extreme to achieve the goal.

Someone might take harmful diet pills so they could lose weight.

A sportsperson might use performance-enhancing drugs, banned illegal illicit drugs.

Someone fixated on the goal of getting a promotion might engage in unethical behavior in the workplace.

The authors of the Harvard Business School report say that These are predictable side effects of overemphasizing goals.

In my home country of New Zealand, a famous sportsperson passed away recently.

Now back in 1977, oh, this made the news.

The New Zealand All Blacks, our national rugby team, were playing Wales in Cardiff, Wales.

It's a little hard to explain what happened if you don't know the rules, so I'll just sum it up by saying, our man cheated.

1 of the All Blacks did something more akin to what you'd see on a soccer field than in a rugby stadium.

Our kicker kicked what we'd call here a field goal.

It was now 13-12 to New Zealand, and New Zealand won 13-12.

And honestly, that victory sat a little uneasily.

But The player responsible for the piece of questionable sportsmanship said, and I quote, "...you don't make excuses for wanting to win." You see, the goal was winning.

And ethics went out the window, along with honor and a little bit of pride.

Lance Armstrong was a cyclist who wanted to win more than he wanted to simply compete.

When he saw back in the 90s that cycling was awash in cheating, He realized that if he wanted to have any hope of winning, that he'd have to cheat, too.

He became the best cheat, and therefore the best cyclist.

Armstrong decided he'd have to do it if he wanted to win.

If you're overly goal-oriented, these things happen.

And what happens once you accomplish your goal?

It's not uncommon for people to drop the good habits that got them to where they were.

Dieters who lose weight frequently put the weight back on if they've been fixated on a goal rather than on a process.

1 of the biggest challenges brought about by concentrating too much on goals is that it binds up your feelings of self-worth with things that you can't control.

You want to shoot, I don't know, 72 on the golf course.

74, it doesn't matter what it is, but you want that score.

Because of the wind, you're a lousy golfer.

You're bummed because you didn't shoot a 72, A3A4.

The boss who was going to promote you retires and you don't get your promotion.

It's all you wanted to do, but you picked up an injury.

You're not able to run on the day the marathon takes place.

If it's all about the goal and not about the process, you set yourself up for a fall.

It's not to say everything about goals is bad.

But if you overly fixate on the goal, Then you should completely disregard goals.

I'd like to be able to do 20 pushups, 50 pushups, 100 pushups.

My daughter started off with a pull-up bar.

I want to get to however many pull-ups it is.

Looked like that was Mount Everest, But man, she just nailed it.

Once you've set the goal, what do you do then?

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The Process

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