One of the fallacies I have seen with goals. I don’t think that a book on motivation has ever been written that does not include something about goals. If something were as easy to achieve that by just having the goal it seems like anyone that read any success book that had a goal would have goals that were achieved.

I have found that controllable target behaviors are better to have as “goals”, for example you can more easily control the number of presentations you make or conversations you start easier than you can control the number of sales made.

Hours worked, days worked, meetings held, orders asked for and number of contacts made seem to be far more controllable. When a person (myself included) focuses on things outside of his control it causes more frustration than motivation. If frustration sets in quitting a system becomes a very viable option.

Goals are not always controlable but target behaviors are. I have found that focusing on a controlable target behavior as a "goal" leads to far less frustration.