Goals can be a helpful way to enhance our performance, keep us moving in the right direction, and increase our happiness and well-being. However, we won’t reap any of those benefits if we don’t set them the right way. Here are three ways we tend to go wrong when setting goals, and what to do instead this time around.

• We set only performance goals. The first mistake many of us make is setting performance goals (how well we want to do something) at the exclusion of learning goals (the knowledge and skills we need to acquire to achieve the performance goals). If your performance goal is to become a manager within two years, pursuing this goal simply by working hard at your current job to the best of your abilities won’t guarantee that you’ll reach it. You must identify which skills you need to learn to excel to the next level, and how to acquire them.
• We get trapped in low-level goals, which are the methods or steps we use to achieve our primary or high-level goals. We often get stuck in low-level goals because our actions are driven mostly by unconscious habits. It takes mental energy to pause, identify our higher aims, and consider better approaches to pursue them.
• We start thinking too narrowly. A single-minded focus on a goal can cause you to miss out on inspirations from unrelated areas that could spark novel ways to achieve that goal, help you develop new ways of thinking, and catalyze important contributions. While there’s value to deep expertise, staying within the confines of your discipline can also limit your problem-solving skills.