What is the value in setting a goal for yourself or your organization?  Many cynics discount goals as artificial creations that don’t translate into actual results.  They argue that we are going to do the work anyway, so why set up a fake expectation?

In a recent blog post David Allen discussed what he believes to be the most useful perspective on goals and why they matter.

“There is always the dilemma of trying to set targets low enough to be realistic, but high enough to be galvanizing, exciting, and challenging.

This is a topic for endless business books and motivation pundits. I just want to highlight one perspective I’ve found very useful over the years: The value of goals is not in the future they describe, but the change in perception of reality they foster, in the present.

What we focus on changes what we notice. Our brain filters information, seeing one thing in a situation instead of something else, based on what we identify with, what we have our attention on.”

Read the full post at the Getting Things Done blog.