http://www.steveshapiro.com/2005/10/03/go-95-achieve-optimal-performance/ Steve shares his unconventional approach on Business Innovation, Creativity, Goals and Critical Thinking Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:12:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://www.steveshapiro.com/2005/10/03/go-95-achieve-optimal-performance/#comment-1528 Goal-Free Living » Three Points I Wish I Made Clearer – Part 1 Tue, 12 Sep 2006 02:23:12 +0000 http://www.goalfree.com/?p=97#comment-1528 [...] Although Goal-Free Living is about having the life you want, the real thrust of the book is success…with less effort. When you are consumed by your goals, you focus on the future rather than being present to what is around you. You become stressed. As a result, you don’t perform your best. All of my studies and examples show that people who “try harder” are often less successful in achieving their “goals.” Sales reps who try the “hard sale” are worse sales people (there are several examples in the book). Students who focus too much on grades get stressed and sub-optimize their test performance (and they miss bigger learning opportunities). Athletes who focus on the “numbers” (batting average, goals, the stop watch) often perform worse than those who are “in the moment”. [...] [...] Although Goal-Free Living is about having the life you want, the real thrust of the book is success…with less effort. When you are consumed by your goals, you focus on the future rather than being present to what is around you. You become stressed. As a result, you don’t perform your best. All of my studies and examples show that people who “try harder” are often less successful in achieving their “goals.” Sales reps who try the “hard sale” are worse sales people (there are several examples in the book). Students who focus too much on grades get stressed and sub-optimize their test performance (and they miss bigger learning opportunities). Athletes who focus on the “numbers” (batting average, goals, the stop watch) often perform worse than those who are “in the moment”. [...]

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