Setting goals

Why do people set goals? Seriously?

Who stops if they reach their goal? When we decide to work towards achieving something, surely we are going to be the best we can. I’ve been lifting weights 5 days a week for 10 years, I lift as much as I possibly can, to get as strong as I can and be as big as I can.

So now a fellow decides he wants to PE. He is 6”x5”, he sets a “goal” of 7”x5.5” and gets to work. Now maybe he’s a hard gainer, and will never be able to reach his “goal”. Maybe it takes 3 years to reach 6.75”x5.25”, but he feels great about his size and continues to maintain. What purpose did his specific goal serve? Nothing, he wanted to get bigger, he did, he failed his goal. He’s still happy.

Or maybe the fellow is an easy gainer, and in 1 year he is 7”x5.5”, he’s happy. Does he stop? Of course not, he continues and gets bigger. What did his preset numerical goal serve? Absolutely nothing again.

Then of course there’s the guy who is 5.5”x4” and sets a goal of 8”x6”. Why would a person do that? I just don’t get it.

Maybe it’s because of my attitude in life, and my bodybuilding hobby. I think a “goal” should be to be the best we can, and to maximize everything. Damn, my post sounds so negative! I didn’t mean it to be that way. I just don’t see any value in setting a goal, you really don’t know where you will end up when you start, so how can you possibly make plans? Just be the best you can is a far more useful “goal” in my opinion.

It serves the purpose to give someone the feeling of progression.

Goals are set for processes that take lots of time. Otherwise, one would have no direction, no feel of how well he is doing - he would have no sense whatsoever and therefore, couldn’t adjust his approach to optimize the process.

Just think about it. You start body building with NO specific goal. You go at it for years without realizing that you are gaining 0.. nada.. even worse, you have bad form and are actually hurting yourself over the years!
Perhaps you realize, but you don’t care. Whatever.

Goals are there to give you some sort of control over progression.
That’s my take on it.

I also get your point, your reasoning, but I do not agree.
Goals are useful, they are tools imho. Do not disregard them.

Edit:
It also is a great motivator - reaching a goal!
Not everyone is “strong” in commitment and other various characteristics lack. A motivator is a great thing to have, to keep one going.

If you approach body building like you approach life or a job then you will only do what’s necessary and nothing more. You will only succeed at being adequate. However, when you set a goal, you are establishing a baseline that you want to strive for. A marathoner doesn’t achieve much if he just goes out for a run. He sets a distance with intermittent times and works hard until he reaches those milestones. When he’s there, he sets another goal.

As I reread your post, it occurred to me that you actually do have a goal:

Your goal is to be the best you can be; lift as much as you can. Last week when you last bench pressed you made a mental note of how much and for how many reps. This week you put the same weight on the bar and performed more reps or you put on a little more weight with the same number of reps. You are setting internal goals which grow as you do. Other people benefit from writing down external goals on paper. Perhaps to be the best I can be or lift as much as I can, I set a goal to bench press 300 lbs this week. Maybe next week I want 310. I write it down and work for it. Surpassing it, I’ll set a new goal.

Goals also serve the important function of encouraging the goal setter to keep working hard because he has made progress. Most of us need this encouragement to keep getting better or to lift more weight. For some of us it is just a roadmap of where you’ve been and where you are going. Personally, I’d rather go somewhere than just arbitrarily drive around until I got there.

Flawed thinking for the weak-willed IMO. When I’m training i don’t even calculate the weight, in the end it doesn’t matter. I just lift it as many times as I can, with perfect form, and keep adding weight to the bar as long as I can move it. The GOAL is to get stronger and bigger, how strong and how big is an unknown. Assigning a number to it is impossible, and useless.

You look in the mirror, weigh yourself and check bodyfat, you can see if your training is working. Similarly, you look at your cock and measure it, you see if it’s working. A goal does make anything get bigger.

So your saying when working out you don’t set goals? Like, if it was possible, you would like to be 500 pounds of lean muscle? Would you like to have 20 inch dick? People set goals for more reasons that others, but my guess is that there are a reason why that chosen goal is what they think is the best for them at the current time.

Your basically saying that we need to be best we can, so how a 20x10 can be good for somebody? Or perhaps…my best i can be for example is my goal..

I guess goals are not made to limit your gains. Its more about mentalizing how you want to be. The secret stuff ( who read the book knows what I’m talking about). It is also to keep focused in the task. Many people believe in this, but if you NEED it to be successfully, I don’t think so.

Well, there can be distant goals as well. Just to limit the gains so to speak. That really depends. I guess for PE it doesn’t work like that… Because you might think it’s the right size, but you may be wrong and still gotta PE. This doesn’t apply to huge dudes of course :D

Perhaps the reason you feel this way is because you are already happy with what you have and where you are in life so anything more is just a bonus. Though many people could benefit from being happy with what they have, quite a few desire to improve one or more aspects or features of their body, mind or life. The best way to measure success is by setting goals and marking them off when you get there.

Perhaps goals can also be used as limiters, e.g. in PE.
I for one, know exactly that I do not need more than 20+/18+ BPEL/NBPEL with low/bad EQ, meaning minimum measurements.
Once I reach that goal and I still feel like I need more, I can think to myself, hey, your former self said these values are fine - now stop.

I agree… In the end, you don’t really need goals.
They are still useful to have though.

As far as goals go, when the workouts are no longer benefiting my purpose is when I would stop. Whether it is my penis or my body. If my length is hanging 2” out of her, or my girth is ridiculous and I can’t penetrate then I draw the line. In conditioning the body, if I lose flexibility of movements due to muscle mass then something has to change. I’d like to be strong and explosive with ease of movement. As far as measuring goes, I believe it is a good way to track progress in order to tailor your workouts towards what works best.

I do agree with you on short-term goals. I do not set them. I measure the gains and that is where I get the motivation to PE. It’s not about focusing on measuring and seeing how short of your goal you are, you’re talking about ignoring that and focusing on the fact that you did gain.

In PE, it is good to keep track of your losses (EQ and PIs) so you can make educated decisions about your routine otherwise, I agree. Pay more attention to your gains less on your losses.