Page 169 - Hard Goals

160 HARD Goals

You’ve disproved the negative statements you started with, so it’s
just a question of closing the loop and cementing this logically
sound bit of encouragement in your consciousness. Overwhelm-
ingly, we have little or nothing to fear from attempting (and
even failing at) a diffi cult goal, because it’s only by attempting
diffi cult goals that we hone our ability to successfully achieve
them. And remember, we’ll have absolutely no control over our
lives and destinies if we’re paralyzed by the fear of the mostly
imagined consequences of failing at diffi cult goals.

SUMMARY

Just doing your best doesn’t cut it in the world of HARD Goals.
But how diffi cult is diffi cult enough? Well, if your current
HARD Goal doesn’t measure up to all those things you’ve felt
in the past when doing something great, increase the diffi culty.
Shake that brain up, make it register the message that you’re a
high performer, that you can make a difference, that your goal
is required. Because the more diffi cult your goal, the more nec-
essary it’s going to feel and the better performance you’re going
to deliver.
And if your goal demands you start from scratch and learn
a whole host of new skills, well, just create a HARD learning
goal to get yourself up and running. Then, before you know it,
you’ll be swapping over to HARD performance goals. And if
you have a history of making your goals too easy (an underset-
ter) or too hard (an oversetter) pay attention to that fact and
make adjustments early on. Ask yourself, “What am I going to
learn from this goal and how do I feel about this goal?” If you’re