Page 127 - Hard Goals

118 HARD Goals

to keep working toward that bigger goal. It’s like their brain
says, “Whew, that was tough, but at least it’s over now and I
can just stop working.” But when they view the small accom-
plishment as a demonstration of their commitment to a larger
goal, well, not surprisingly, they get even more committed to
the bigger goal. So whenever you have these accomplishments
that are smaller parts of a bigger goal, always make sure you tell
yourself how this demonstrates your commitment to the bigger
goal.
Howie Peirce was in the audience of one of my speeches.
After a quick chat (and a signed book) he told me, “I just have
a terrible time getting things done. I am the king of procrastina-
tion.” He said it with a smile, but if you talk to him for a few
minutes you’ll inevitably hear him admit he’s not really laugh-
ing. “So I set a HARD Goal to start seeing my stuff through,”
Howie said, “starting with my goal to see things through!”
Not every day is fl awless for Howie. “I struggle some days,
I’m not going to lie,” he says. “But I take each day as a new
challenge. Like today, my boss asked me to update part of our
quarterly fi nancials spreadsheet. No big deal, but typically I
would get distracted by something and forget to close the loop
and let everyone else on the team know when it was done, stuff
like that. But not today. I saw my task out through to the end.
It actually feels good to know I’m not hanging one of my team-
mates out to dry with version control problems or bad data on
that report.”
Howie’s goal is a lifelong endeavor, just like Quinn’s goal
to be organized. For both of them, if they don’t view their daily
efforts to meet their goal as a commitment to the larger goal, it
would be too easy to become discouraged, drop out, and fail.