Page 142 - Hard Goals

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as we know, Lyle succeeded in making that goal a reality, four
times over.
By now you may have recognized an underlying theme
throughout everything you’ve read thus far. I believe, and so do
lots of other experts, that the overwhelming majority of human
beings have tremendous untapped potential. That’s why HARD
Goals work so well; they are designed to help unleash the depth
of great possibility that already exists inside of you. OK, so
maybe you’re not going to be an Olympic skier like Lyle, or
a billionaire, CEO, supermodel, or Nobel laureate. But let me
fi rst say that a good deal of what determines our end results is
our desire for those results, and not everyone wants to be those
things. But that doesn’t mean each of us doesn’t have perfectly
viable HARD Goals that we do wish to attain.
Second, even if we’re not aiming for the Olympics, virtu-
ally all of us can radically improve our fi nancial position, run a
marathon, advance our career, be healthier, and strengthen our
intellect. With a little nod to the armed forces here, every one
of us can maximize our human potential (you know, be all we
can be).
The fl ip side of this idea is another major theme you’ve no
doubt noticed running through this book: when people under-
perform their potential, it’s usually more an issue of motivation
than of innate talent. That’s really important, so let me repeat
it: we’ve generally got the innate talent we need to accomplish
remarkably diffi cult goals. And if we’re not accomplishing those
diffi cult goals, it’s usually not for lack of talent; it’s for lack of
motivation.
This is why I get a cranky when I hear the “it’s all genetic”
crowd fatalistically tell us that our lives are predetermined by