Want to Succeed? Stop Thinking About Your Goal

Focus on This

Michael Hyatt

Education, Timemanagement, Productivity, Focus, Organization, Michaelhyatt, Planning, Achievement, Business, Worklifebalance, Goals

4.5 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the fastest way to reach your goals is to stop fixating on the finish line? In this episode, Marissa and Joel explain why goal-obsession leads to discouragement, procrastination, and rigidity — and why progress actually accelerates when you focus on the process. Nine times out of ten, you'll get further when you focus on the next right thing.

Key Takeaways

The Game Isn’t the Score. If you stare at the “scoreboard” of your goal, you lose focus on the next play—the only thing you can actually control—and miss out on the satisfaction of feeling yourself grow.
Progress Happens in the Present. A compelling vision can motivate you to change, but it's what you do right now that determines whether that vision becomes reality.
Excellence is Better Than Success. The happiness of the moment you achieve a goal is fleeting. Becoming the kind of person who lives in alignment with your values and pursues hard things—that’s always satisfying.
Plan Your Next Play. Use your Weekly Big 3 and Daily Big 3 to let your goal inform today's actionable next step. Then, do it.
Goals Can Change (And That’s a Win). As you move, clarity increases. Sometimes the goal you start with isn’t the goal you need.

Watch on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/QUvWUgkc3Ro

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, guys, it's officially happened. Are you ready for this? This is the episode where we tell you to stop paying attention to your goals. Yeah, you heard that right. Stop paying attention to your goals. Okay, no, this is not an early April Fool's joke. Yes, we're serious.
0:21.9	Just wait.
0:23.0	This episode is going to be really good.
0:30.0	Welcome to focus on this, the most productive podcast on the internet.
0:35.2	I'm Marissa Hyatt.
0:36.3	And I'm Joel Miller.
0:39.1	And this is where we remind you of something you already know. It's not about getting more things done. It's about getting
0:45.2	the right things done. Both at work and in life. And today we're talking about why the best way
0:52.7	to reach your goals, however counterintuitively
0:55.9	this might strike you, is just to stop focusing on them.
0:59.9	Yeah, wait, what?
1:01.1	I feel like somebody has spun us around and we're kind of like, we don't know where we are
1:07.4	or what direction we're pointing in or what's happening. But we really are
1:11.7	talking about this to stop thinking and focusing on your goals. Super counterintuitive.
1:17.7	Let's set this up just by talking about what a goal is, right? You know, you want to have change
1:23.2	in your life. You want to bring about something new, you've got this inspiring vision, you set a
1:29.6	goal that's clear, you've made it specific, it's real enough that you can see it, you can almost
1:34.9	feel like what it would be like to accomplish it, you connect really deeply with what's at stake.
1:41.4	And then here we come saying, yeah, okay, forget about it. Okay, but maybe I should
1:46.8	explain a little bit, a little bit more here. Imagine you're an athlete. If you started staring at
1:53.3	the scoreboard the entire game, you're just going to psych yourself out. You know, you might find
1:58.2	yourself at the half and you're behind X number of points.
	...

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