What Are the Effects of Setting Goals Too High?

Setting goals is a helpful practice. Goals outline what you want to achieve and often offer a time frame. Setting goals that are too high, however, can have serious side effects-even if the goal is unattainable due to factors that you cannot control. A goal that is too high can prove devastating physically and mentally.

Negative Behavior

• Goals that are set too high can kick off a slew of negative behavior, according to "Business Week" magazine. You can end up throwing common sense and even common courtesy out the window, doing what it takes to achieve the unattainable and unrealistic goals. These behaviors can include engaging in unethical practices, stepping on others to achieve you own success, and an adamant refusal to cooperate with anybody. You can also end up taking great and unnecessary risks. Goals that are too high can become your obsession, making your focus so narrow that you are unable to think of or work on anything other than reaching your goal.

Depression

• While a goal set too high may not be an immediate cause of depression, it can definitely serve as a background cause, according to Tom G. Stevens, author of "You Can Choose to be Happy." Setting a goal too high, and subsequently not attaining it, can send you into a downward spiral. Missing the goal is followed by feelings of failure, inadequacy and unhappiness. The spiral can grow, causing you to give up all goals. This leaves you in what Stevens calls the "goal-less vacuum." This vacuum, where motivation, ambition and goals are extinct, becomes the immediate cause of depression.

Anxiety

• Setting goals too high can affect other areas of your health. Goals that are too high can lead to anxiety, according to The Irish Times newspaper. Anxiety can lead to depression, stress and a host of other side effects. Mental symptoms of anxiety include being on edge, irritable and having trouble concentrating. Physical symptoms include sleeping problems, headaches, muscle aches and tension, trembling, twitching, lightheadedness, nausea, hot flashes, sweating and a pounding and racing heart.