Page 19 - Hard Goals

10 HARD Goals

The one thing that has kept modern civilization going as
long as it has is that every so often we get a leader that knows
how to set HARD Goals. The HARD Goal in Abraham Lin-
coln’s Gettysburg Address steeled our resolve to fi ght so that
“government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.” John F. Kennedy’s HARD
Goal asked the nation to “commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth.” Ronald Reagan’s HARD
Goal demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Win-
ston Churchill’s HARD Goal made clear that “whatever the
cost may be, we shall fi ght on the beaches, we shall fi ght on
the landing grounds, we shall fi ght in the fi elds and in the
streets, we shall fi ght in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Listen, I know it’s a truly unsettling world right now. But
you and I both know that denial, blame, excuses, and anxiety
are not going to make it any better. We need to harness the
energy of this moment, scary though it may be, and turn it
into greatness. Whether we’re going to grow our company,
lose weight, run a marathon, or change the whole darn world,
we’re going to have to saddle up a HARD Goal and ride that
sucker at a full gallop.

GETTING STARTED

So where do we go from here? How do you recapture the incred-
ible feeling of those past glories and create that same greatness
and happiness in the here and now? In short, how do you set
and achieve HARD Goals?