What we are capa­ble of achiev­ing is often greater than we real­ize. Don’t buy into the notion that by set­ting the bar low, you can eas­ily sur­pass your goals. In prac­tice this almost never happens.

Set stretch goals – for your­self and for the team – and strive to reach them. There will always be bar­ri­ers, issues and chal­lenges but they can be over­come with a plan, clear focus, strong com­mit­ment and per­sis­tent execution.

Falling short of a stretch goal will yield bet­ter results than if you had aimed lower.

Goals are Powerful

I have often heard that you can­not reach a goal you do not have. How true! Goals give us focus and help keep us on track. At the same time, the real­ity of “so much to do and so lit­tle time” applies. That’s why clar­ity about your goals is critical.

Your goals must be spe­cific and mea­sure­able, espe­cially when you are aim­ing high. Put your goals in writ­ing. Look at them daily. Make sure they advance you toward your ulti­mate vision.

Set Goals in Every Aspect of Life

There is more to our lives than a career. Or at least there should be! Andy Andrews (author of The Trav­el­ers Gift) reminded me recently that when we have issues or con­cerns about home, health, and other aspects of our life, they dis­tract us from what we are doing at work.

This is why it is so impor­tant to have spe­cific goals both at work and at home, with a defin­i­tive plan to keep us focused and balanced.

Stretch and Aim High

Goals are pow­er­ful tools. Why not set our sights high? Stretch­ing our team and our­selves by rais­ing the bar higher is a valu­able practice.

I am con­vinced that each of us have the abil­ity to reach higher and attain more than we cur­rently believe pos­si­ble. Our oppor­tu­ni­ties exceed our vision and our abil­ity to fully grasp those oppor­tu­ni­ties. The jour­ney starts with believ­ing it is pos­si­ble and set­ting goals that stretch us to new heights.

Have a Plan

Accom­plish­ment is the result of a well thought-out plan and per­sis­tent exe­cu­tion. It takes work and team­work. Plans must be spe­cific. Required actions need to be iden­ti­fied and assigned. Time­frames and account­abil­ity must be estab­lished. The spe­cific path­way to reach­ing our goals needs to be well defined.

This is often where we fall down. Goals must be mea­sure­able, and there­fore quan­tifi­able. The more spe­cific our focus, the more mean­ing­ful the action steps required to get where we are going.

Take One Step at a Time

Stretch goals are by def­i­n­i­tion more dif­fi­cult to achieve. That’s why accom­plish­ing them is so reward­ing. But these goals can often seem over­whelm­ing or scary. It’s like look­ing up at Mt. Ever­est at real­iz­ing how high it is. Just remem­ber that the jour­ney to any height is made one step at a time.

Think in terms of the actions you must take in the next 100 days to progress toward the goal. Stay focused on tak­ing each small step toward the goal, and take time to cel­e­brate the accom­plish­ment of smaller mile­stones along the journey.

These small inter­vals can be less over­whelm­ing, and if you keep them up, before long you will reach your goal.

You Can’t Lose

If you set your goals high but fall short, you still win. It’s more than likely that you will do more than you thought pos­si­ble, and prove to your­self that you are capa­ble of greater things.

This will increase your con­fi­dence, and you may find your­self rais­ing the bar even higher the next time.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
–Les Brown–

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Tags: Achievement, Goals, Planning, Vision

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