TED Talks Daily
Talks to Motivate You Playlist (10/10): Why you should stop setting goals (yes, really) | Emmanuel Acho
10 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey everyone, you're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Thank you for listening to today's podcast playlist, 10 Talks to Motivate You. Today, we have dropped 10 talks from our archive onto the feed all at once.
to motivate you to keep you going when things are hard to inspire you as the weather shifts to help kickstart that new project or idea or if things are feeling good for you right now just to offer a different perspective whatever type of motivation you might need we have a TED talk for that To wrap up, we are bringing you former NFL player, author, and TV sports analyst, Emmanuel Acho.
In athletics, in business, in life, everyone seems to set goals. Surprising though it may seem, that might not be the way to excel. In his 2023 talk, Emmanuel offers some thoughts on how to get better, push forward, and do more by explicitly not setting goals. It's coming up right after a short break.
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And now, our TED Talk of the day. I do not suppose to know everything. And those closest to me, they might say, I don't really know much at all. But one thing that I know to be true, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is this. The surest way to fail in life is to set a goal.
Now, unfortunately, I found this out through excruciating pain, but hopefully in the next nine minutes, I can convince you, too, that this is true, without the pain, unless, of course, you consider listening to me painful. Okay. The year was 2011. I was seeking to become a multimillionaire by the age of 21. So how was I going to do this? It was simple.
I was going to leave college at the University of Texas one year early. I was going to leave after my junior year and declare for the National Football League draft. In order to do this, however, you have to submit your resume to the NFL. A resume in football, it is your highlight tapes from your years playing prior.
So I submitted my football tape from my freshman, my sophomore and my junior year. The NFL sent me back a letter. It's simply read, Dear Emmanuel, you will not be drafted in the first three rounds. Excuse you? I won't be drafted in the first three rounds? So what did I do, TED audience? It's simple. I set a goal that day. But you know what they say about goal setting.
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Chapter 2: Why does Emmanuel Acho believe setting goals can hinder success?
So I highlighted the sheet of paper, Dear Emmanuel, you won't be drafted in the first three rounds, and I put it above my bed in my condo in Austin, Texas. Every morning I woke up, I looked at it. Dear Emmanuel, you won't be drafted in the first three rounds. Every night before I went to sleep, I looked at it. Dear Emmanuel, you won't be drafted in the first three rounds.
I worked tirelessly my senior year in college with one goal in mind. be drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. Those are the most prestigious rounds after all. 6 a.m. workouts in college, study hall, class, I'm doing it all with one goal in mind. Well, fast forward one year later. I'm at the NFL Combine. The NFL Combine, it is the job interview.
I'm in front of 32 billionaires, 32 of the richest men in America, if not the richest men in the world. They are the owners of every NFL team. I'm running the 40-yard dash. The 40-yard dash is one of the testing metrics you use at the NFL Combine. With millions of dollars on the line, the faster you run, the higher you get drafted. I take my mark. I proceed to run. I hear pop, pop, pop.
I keep running. I think my heels are clicking. Pop, pop, pop. I clutch my quad, I fall to the ground. It was my quad being torn off the bone. I rip my quad off the bone, I'm falling to the ground in agony in front of these 32 billionaires. I didn't get drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. I made a decision that day, in that moment, to stop setting goals. My self-esteem, ruined.
Self-efficacy, ruined. That last year of my life seemingly gone to waste because I had one goal, y'all. It was simple, be drafted in the first three rounds. Then I tore my quad and it all fell apart. What I failed to mention thus far is why I tore my quad. Two days prior at the NFL Combine, I weighed in at 240 pounds. In the NFL, the bigger you are, the better.
But as you all know, weight, it don't move all that fast. So I cut 10 pounds within two days. I ran the 40-yard dash two days later at 230 pounds, dehydrated, dieted for two days. Why? Because I was so focused on my goal that I caused harm to myself. It's not that goals don't add value. It's just that the risk of goal setting is greater than the potential reward.
Think about it in your own life for a moment. Maybe you have the goal of being in a relationship, so you ignore the toxic behavior. Think about it in your own life. See, one of my greatest accomplishments to date Being an NFL player, because ultimately I did play for four years, I view negatively because I didn't hit my goal. Maybe that's the same for some of you.
Maybe you have the goal of reading a certain amount of books in a year. You've become a much more proficient reader, but you didn't hit your goal. Maybe you had a goal of making a certain amount of money for your business. You are a thriving entrepreneur, but you didn't hit your goal. I left the NFL. I became a content creator, where I would live a much more limitless life.
I'll get to that more here in a moment. The question now is, why in the world do we set goals? Well, first, let's define a goal. A goal, by definition, it is the end towards which effort is aimed. But why would I start something with the end in mind? And working on my master's degree in sports psychology, I focused on goal setting.
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Chapter 3: What personal experience led Acho to stop setting goals?
Did this tweet get as many likes as my last tweet? How about this TikTok post? Did it get as many shares as my last? We have this insatiable desire for feedback. You know, I made a mistake earlier. I said the surest way to fail in life is to set a goal. But in all honesty, the only way to fail in life is to set a goal.
Think about anything you've ever failed at, maybe relationally, occupationally, educationally. That marriage had ended in divorce. You didn't get into that college that you wanted to. You didn't pass the MCAT. You didn't pass the LSAT. Whatever the case may be, it was all tethered to a goal. It's not just that the surest way to fail in life is to set a goal.
The only way to fail in life is to set a goal. So what do I suggest we do instead? Here it is. You have an objective with no limitations. Now, I know what you're thinking. Acho, that's semantics. No. The small difference will have a huge impact in your life. Objective, effort aimed in a direction. A goal, the end towards which energy is aimed. Your objective, it should be subjective.
It should be subject to people's interpretation. That way you do not fail. But you can't simultaneously subscribe to the notion of possibility while still being held captive by goal setting. The laws of goal setting completely undermine the freedom of possibility. So if we're being honest with ourselves, we have to choose one. Because possibility is limitless.
But goal setting, oh, it's fixated on an end. If you want to have a $10 million business, you'll set that goal. And you might do just that, have a $10 million business. Congratulations. You'll work towards a $10 million business, but what if it could have been more?
If you want to run a mile without stopping, you'll work towards it, and you might do just that, having never known if you could have run a marathon. What does it look like practically? Kirk Hammett, lead guitarist for Metallica. He never had the goal of winning eight Grammys. He never had the goal of selling 125 million records. Never had the goal of being a rock star.
He simply said, and I quote, I just want to play my guitar a little bit better every day. Close quote. See, because with that, there is no end. A goal by its definition, it is focused on an ending, which means inherently a goal is limiting. It's not that goals in and of themselves have no value.
It's just what about the damage you have done to yourself, your self-esteem, your self-efficacy, the way in which you view yourself when you look at yourself. What about that damage? I'm not saying don't achieve. I'm saying achieve limitlessly. Let go of the captivity of goal setting and achieve all you actually have to achieve. So what is my objective with no limitations?
Very simply put, to be considered one of the most creative people the television industry has ever seen. Because if I would have achieved my goal of being drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft, I never would have achieved this, winning a primetime Emmy Award and sharing that moment with my mom.
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