Prize or Process: Ego-Driven vs. Task-Driven Goals

I love goals.

Goals are great.

And if you’re wanting to achieve anything of significance, I’d even go as far as saying that goals are necessary.

They keep you focused.

They give you purpose.

And when you accomplish them, they make you feel good.

In general, having goals is a good thing.

If you don’t have any, I’d suggest making some right away.

But here's the thing: not all goals are created equal.

Most goal orientations, or the reason you engage in certain behaviors, are categorized into two different buckets.

The ego-driven bucket and the task-driven bucket.

The Ego-Driven Bucket

If you look inside the ego-driven bucket you will find goals that look a lot like trophies.

These are the goals that give you validation (from others) and make you feel good about yourself.

These goals are focused on winning.

They are outcome-based.

If I do this, I will get this (outcome).

I will…

Lose 20 lbs to fit into my wedding dress…

Take first place in a jiu jitsu competition…

Get a promotion..

Find a significant other…

Run a sub 4-hour marathon…

These are all wins.

Wins are good.

We need them.

They make us feel good.

They give us validation.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to win or achieve success. But when that desire for the prize becomes the sole focus, once you accomplish it, you often move on.

It’s a means to an end.

It’s empty.

It’s over.

Sometimes you make a new goal, sometimes you don’t...

The Task-Driven Bucket

If you take a look into the task-driven bucket, you’ll find goals that are rooted in the process.

The process isn’t sexy.

The process is the grind.

The day-to-day actions.

Most of these actions are insignificant on their own.

They don’t provide you with that euphoric high.

But they are a requirement.

They are the steps in the journey, rather than the destination.

If the ego-driven goals are about winning, then task-driven goals are about playing.

Task-driven goals are focused on what you do, rather than what you get.

I will do this (process), and I might get this.

I will…

Avoid eating processed sugar…

Train jiu jitsu 4 days a week…

Focus on making quality sales calls…

Give more attention to my significant other…

Continue to learn…

The process is about repetitive and consistent action. (Sounds to me a lot like mastery)

To accomplish task-driven goals, we oftentimes need to develop habits.

Hmmm, maybe easier said than done…

Ego Vs. Task

There is nothing inherently wrong with either goal orientation.

Both orientations can be used strategically to elicit change.

And depending on one's own accord, there are certainly pros and cons to both.

If you need validation, are highly competitive, and want strict accountability for short periods of time, ego-based goals are the recipe for success.

If you want sustainable and permanent change, with a difficult barrier to entry, let’s talk about creating task-based goals.

SMART Goals

First let’s go over ego-driven goals.

Ego-driven goals are easy to create.

Just make them S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound).

These are the goals that we already know how to create, because the outcome is the goal.

Do this specific thing, this often, for this period of time, to achieve this.

Run 3 miles per day, 4 times per week, for 16 weeks straight, while linearly increasing your total mileage, to achieve a sub 4-hour marathon.

You likely have been learning this system since you were in middle school. It’s not rocket science, but when done correctly, it certainly has the potential to change your life and check a few things off your bucket list.

Lifestyle Goals

When it comes to task-based goals, you need to aim to create habits.

There are many ways to create habits, but in my opinion the most sustainable way to create new habits — that actually stick — starts with changing your identity and creating a lifestyle surrounding that identity.

Ask yourself, “What type of person do you want to be?” And then do the things that validate that choice.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and renowned expert on this topic famously says, "If your identity believes you are a runner, you will do runner things."

In other words, when you internalize a certain identity or belief about yourself, your actions naturally align with that identity.

Clear provides dozens of other ways to build habits in his book Atomic Habits, but having a strong belief in your identity turns the tasks from work into fun.

Having a SMART goal to achieve a sub 4-hour marathon is a great goal, but if you stop running after the marathon is over are you actually winning?

What did you get out of that goal if you no longer run?

Task-driven goals are easily done when you create a lifestyle around a specific set of tasks.

When your identity is based around that lifestyle, you do things over and over, not for what you might get, but because it’s [fun] { motivating | interesting | rewarding | part of you }.

So, instead of setting goals based on external validation or societal expectations, focus on cultivating a lifestyle around the type of person you want to be rather than what you want to accomplish.

Are you someone who does a marathon or are you a runner?

Are you doing the thing because you want the win or are you doing the thing because you want to play?

I always like to remind myself, the person who has the most fun wins.

It’s pretty hard to beat someone in the long-run if they’re simply having more fun doing it than you are.

Own the Process, 

Tim 

Author of Mastery Monday

Student & Founder