Your goals could be holding you back: Dan Shipper on Lifehacker

Over at Lifehacker, Airtime cofounder Dan Shipper‘s got some ideas on how to get really good at something. And it might do us some good to pay attention. After all, Shipper has built products, sold one of them and been publicly courted by a San Francisco startup — all before graduating college.

In his post, Shipper writes that it’s habits — not goals — that help you succeed. The thing about goals, he says, is they can be discouraging:

If during the first few days or weeks of coding you fail to reach a goal, either because your willpower is depleted or your goals were unrealistic, it’s easy to feel your self-image being threatened. Your fear center kicks in: what if I’m not as smart, and talented and special as I thought? And then it says to you: it’s better I stop trying than find out. And so your willpower is gone, and you’re right back where you started.

Find the whole post here.