Page 143 - Hard Goals

134 HARD Goals

our DNA (if you don’t have the natural talent, oh well, don’t
waste your energy trying). Or when I hear the “happiness”
crowd say that the surest path to fulfi llment is to stop trying so
hard, to just sit back and be thankful for what’s right in front
of us.
I’ll tell you what I’m thankful for: I’m thankful that Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther
King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Mother Teresa, among oth-
ers, didn’t buy into any of those crazy arguments. I’m thankful
that each one of them was willing to push past what’s easy in
order to achieve some exceptionally diffi cult goals. Otherwise
they wouldn’t have founded a country, put a man on the moon,
liberated a nation, freed a people, and so on.
Rather than use a study to prove my “human potential”
argument, let’s do a little exercise (it’s one I sometimes use at
corporate speaking events, so it works great with groups, like if
you’re reading this book with a book club—hint, hint).
Think about the people you work with. If your job is inside
the home or you don’t have coworkers, think about a group of
people with whom you regularly interact, perhaps the people
you volunteer with or other parents you interact with to make
things happen at your kids’ school. Now, mentally break these
folks into the following three categories: high performers, mid-
dle performers, and low performers.
For anybody who says, “This doesn’t apply to me because
everyone I know and work with is super awesome,” let me offer
a quick thought. No matter how high performing your team
may be, virtually every group can be differentiated into these
three groups. The Chicago Bulls won the NBA Championship
in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998, all with the same