Page 18 - Hard Goals

Introduction 9

inside (“Oh sure, she’s got everything, but I’ll bet she’s really
miserable”), the truth is these folks are actually a lot happier
than their underachieving peers.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW
IS HARD, HARD GOALS

With a nod to Burt Bacharach and Hal David, I’d suggest
that the one thing there’s just too little of right now is HARD
Goals. As I write this book, there is no shortage of enormous
challenges facing us individually and collectively. We’re deal-
ing with big issues like terrorism, wars, economic collapse, oil
spills, corruption, defi cits, unemployment, health care prob-
lems, and to top it off, the bulk of people in the world are
either starving or becoming obese. And while we’re trying to
tackle these collective challenges, some of us individually are
looking for jobs, contemplating running a marathon, trying
to quit smoking, going back to school, getting healthy, trying
to advance our careers or grow our businesses, and more.
So the question becomes, how do we meet big challenges?
Do we tackle big challenges with even bigger thinking, cour-
age, ambition, and resolve—also known as HARD Goals? Or
do we pretend the challenges we face aren’t really all that big?
Maybe we deny they exist, or we just blame others, or we
make excuses why we can’t tackle them, or we just freak out
and go hide in the corner. Or maybe we hope against hope that
if we create a little mini-goal that’s nice and easy, we can get
through it all with a few baby steps.