Goals Need Boundaries

I often see leaders return from an emotionally charged training or event on fire and ready to take on the entire world.

In a perfectly protected environment of inspiration and education, anything seems possible and goals are set with NO acknowledgement of life’s realities, relationships with loved ones or energy capacity.

I’m not saying dreaming is bad or that a fresh vision for the future isn’t powerful. In fact, I am a big believer in inspirational spaces. I’m simply reminding you that just as relationships with people require boundaries to be healthy, so do our relationships with our goals.

Some examples of goals with boundaries:

• I will increase my income by $10,000 this year while still honoring my Fridays off.
• I will add five new clients per month for the next three months while shutting my phone off by 9 pm and taking a full day off each weekend.

Goals without boundaries tend to lead to short periods of frenzied activity followed by exhaustion, burnout, sickness and relational strife. Then, when we have to pull back and recover, we give up on the goal, feeling like we aren’t capable or even worse, that something is wrong with us that we can’t achieve the goal.

Not true.

The problem isn’t that we aren’t capable. The problem is that we set a goal without a boundary. And all relationships without boundaries are destined for destruction.

Need some tips on how to establish boundaries? Check out my course, “A Boundary Is Not A Wall,” available here.