Ever since I was first exposed to the idea of setting goals as a kid, there was a voice in the back of my head telling me something was missing. I didn't unders

Ever since I was first exposed to the idea of setting goals as a kid, there was a voice in the back of my head telling me something was missing. I didn't understand what it was back then. But basically, it pretends you have perfect, god-like knowledge. You don't really know whether you want that Project Manager more than anything or not. You don't know for sure, up front, what it will take, and you also might wind up finding out that you're not happy in that new Project Manager job. Goal setting says, "Screw all that uncertainty. Let's pretend we know we want the job, that it will be worth more than it costs, and let's go all out for it." That is a process of willfully adopting an irrational stance. More precisely, it calls for you to irrationally increase your level of confidence. Still -- it is often a very effective thing to do. It transforms you from a parked car to a guided missile, and it makes it possible to bring about great changes in a short period of time. It's something like a blitz attack in which you burn the ships. It's really not something to do lightly. We probably way overuse it. But sometimes it's a very powerful thing to do.