Undefined standard · also called vague goals
how do I know if I am making progress
An undefined standard is a goal with no line you can point to and say "past this, I did it." "Get healthier" and "be more disciplined" are undefined — there is no day you clearly failed, so there is also no day you clearly won. A floor ends the negotiation; an undefined standard just lets the mood vote every morning.
The problem was never that you lack discipline. The problem is you never wrote down what discipline would even mean by five o’clock today.
What to do about it
Rewrite one goal as a number you either hit or missed today. No adjectives.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Standards Beat Goals$6.99
The 5AM Tax$6.99
Standards In Public$6.99
Standards Over GoalsComing soon
The Discipline Blueprint$6.99
Discipline Over Motivation$6.99
The Iron Routine$6.99
Crushing Soft Habits$6.99Part of the Discipline series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- I never know if I actually did enough
- my goals are too vague to fail or succeed at
- how do I know if I am making progress
- why do I keep moving the goalposts on myself
- I say I want to be better but better than what
- how to set a goal I cannot talk my way out of
- I always find a way to tell myself today still counted
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.