Are You Hedging Your Bets?

A while ago I asked if you would achieve your goals, and at the risk of giving away the article’s punchline — I told you that I had no way of knowing the answer to that question. It is entirely in your court to decide whether or not your goals are realistic and achievable (and if you will indeed put forth the effort to achieve them). I can tell you something that will prevent you from achieving your goals, and that is hedging your bets.

The phrase “hedging your bet” (or just “hedging”) means that you’re not fully committing to the task or goal you’ve set for yourself. You’re giving yourself an out. You’re qualifying or modifying your promise to permit yourself to quit without penalty.

Hedging is the “we’ll see” or “maybe” of goal setting.

You know how one of your friends (maybe YOU) won’t commit to going out and meeting-up with the rest of your crew for a night out to be social or attend a concert, etc.? You ask if they’ll meet you at a venue and they don’t say yes, but they don’t say no — they say “‘maybe” or “let me see how the day goes”.

When someone won’t say “yes” — the answer is usually “no”.

If you’re setting goals for yourself and not fully committing to achieving them — if you’re telling yourself “maybe, I’ll lose 10 lbs.” or “I’ll go to the gym and exercise if I’m not too tired after work” — then you’re hedging.

Hedging is trying to fool yourself into thinking you’re setting goals that you want to achieve.

Setting a goal and committing to it is a promise to yourself that you’re going to achieve it (or at least make an honest attempt to do so). Hedging is a pre-failure excuse that you tell yourself to soften the blow of feeling guilty when you eventually drop the pretense and give-up on achieving the goal altogether.

Don’t fall for it.
Don’t fool yourself.

You’re too smart for that.