[jeffem]

It's impossible to not have goals and not plan. The author's suggestions: "Get up earlier", "Talk to more strangers", etc. are goals in and of themselves.

Whenever this topic comes up, what people are really talking about is the degree to which you can plan for a particular goal in terms of its time frame and complexity. The author touches on this relationship. That is, the more complex the goal and the more time required to achieve it, the less specific you can get in creating a plan to achieve it. If my goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of the year, it's unrealistic for me to plan out my exact meals and workouts a year in advance. But it's perfectly realistic to have a more general plan of eating healthier food and doing more exercise, and leaving the "implementation details" for that week or day.

What I don't like about the article is that the author doesn't back up his suggestions with anything but personal experience and opinions. There are scientific studies that claim benefits in explicit goal-setting. If you're going to make a strong case, you need to address those studies and bring in some counter-evidence.

[philwelch]

Getting up earlier is something you just do, it's not a goal. Losing 30 pounds is more of a goal because it's an expected outcome, but eating more salad and drinking less Coke is something you just do.

[aqme28]

I disagree. That's like telling a depressed person to be less depressed. It's not wrong or anything, but it's much more of a process than you're implying.

Anything that is challenging for you can become a goal. I find it very very hard to wake up early, especially when I don't need to, and some mornings I fail. Waking up early is in fact a goal I have been working on over the past six months or so, and I do this by working at it incrementally. Today I get up at 10, next week at 9:30, etc...

[philwelch]

It's a difference of mindset. Maybe you're just over thinking it. If you think it's a "goal", you aspire to it and hope to achieve it. If its just something you do, you just do it. If you want to complicate the idea, then think of it as developing an internal locus of control. But it's simpler than that.