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Comment by city41 | Hacker News Reader

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, a refreshing "new" form of psychology based on Eastern philosophy) advocates not setting goals, but rather leading a value driven life. Determine what you value, and make sure your life heads for those values, the rest tends to just follow.

But with that said, I still personally find setting goals to work very well for me. So I still do it. I met all of my goals for 2011, and am completely on track so far for 2012. For whatever reason, setting goals is very motivating for me.

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That's a bit oversimplified. The ACT approach is that goals can be useful things, in moderation, when they're serving your values. But if you get too caught up in the outcome associated with the goal -- whether you succeed or fail, whether anyone recognizes or not -- then you're likely to have problems.

For instance: "My company failed. This is a disaster. I'm such a loser." "We beat our sales target by 200%! We're geniuses!" "After months of work, we finally shipped. Now I feel empty and have no enthusiasm for what's next. Why aren't I happy?"

(Of course those are oversimplified too, but you get the idea.)

You are correct. It's been a while since I read these books. Looking back at Harris's book (The Happiness Trap) he has an entire section of the book dedicated to values, and he stresses that values are more important than goals. But he does still say to set goals.

I just looked up more for those interested - here's a book for the general public on the subject:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/search/?keywords=Get%20ou...

_Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life_ was the first book on the subject, written by Steve Hayes who started ACT. Since then many more books have been written. Another popular one is _The Happiness Trap_[0] by Russ Harris.

GOOYMAIYL is a workbook with a technical/scientific bend to it. He cites a lot of studies and data, and supports his theories quite a bit. If I had to guess, HN would enjoy this book, it's pretty geeky.

The Happiness Trap is much more of a self help book. No cited studies or any real hard data. Just gives a more gentle, friendly approach to ACT. Also an enjoyable book in its own right.

[0] http://www.thehappinesstrap.com/

I'd like to ask what size your goals are, in order for you to have met all of them? Are they the size of "I will send this email today" or larger which include more micro-management?

Large enough to take true effort to accomplish, but not so large as to force an unrealistic change in my life. My main goals for 2011 were: make vim my full time editor, run a half marathon, and find a better job.

Cool, thanks. I've recently aligned my goals at the same depth as the ones you stated - and it takes a lot of the pressure off, and enough pressure to direct my behaviour toward working towards those goals.

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