Episode 14 - Why the goal "avoid X" will get you into trouble
We all know the pirate stories where X marks the spot where the treasure is buried, and the dotted line is the course you need to follow to get there.
So what happens when your destination isn’t X, but to avoid X?
It’s a sneaky habit. If you recognise it in yourself, know that you are in the company of millions of people who also set goals not to get something, but to avoid something. Goals like “I don’t want to get hurt anymore” or “I want to quit smoking” or “I want to stop being poor”.
The desires that drive these goals are genuine and heartfelt, but the focus of goals like this is so scattered that there is no way you can achieve them. When your whole map is littered with X’s that you want to avoid, there is no room to manouvre any more and nowhere you can go.
In this video, I show you how the goal to ‘avoid X’ affects your mental health to a point where it comes awfully close to depression – and what little trick helps you to set goals that, even when things get rough, give you the energy to achieve them!
Want to see more of these videos without having to hunt them down? Subscribe now to have every new video delivered directly to your inbox once a week:
Video is subtitled in English & Dutch
