Page 32 - Hard Goals

Heartfelt 23

so forth—because you have a heartfelt connection to them.
You don’t just know these folks; you know you really care for
them. But what if you were asked to do something for a passing
acquaintance or even a total stranger? Most likely you’d exert
some effort because you’re a nice person, but most people would
risk and sacrifi ce much more for a loved one than they would
for an acquaintance or stranger. Doctors give more compre-
hensive care to people they feel more connected to. People give
more money to charities when they feel a heartfelt connection to
the recipients. Research has even shown that sales generated at
Tupperware parties can be signifi cantly explained by analyzing
the strength of the personal connection between the host and
the guests.
With all due respect to Sting, if you love somebody (and thus
have a heartfelt connection to them), you’re probably not going
to set them free. Because of that heartfelt connection, you’re
going to follow them to the far corners of the globe, dripping
blood, sweat, and tears to help them in any way you can. And
that’s precisely the kind of heartfelt connection you want to feel
toward your goals. You want to love, need, and be deeply con-
nected to your goals; you want to feel like you’d chase a goal to
the very ends of the earth in order to fulfi ll it.
Just to be clear, it’s not all about emotions. You absolutely
need the analytical part of your brain to create and achieve a
HARD Goal (as you’ll clearly see in the “Required” and “Dif-
fi cult” chapters). Certainly you should calculate the precise
amount of weight you need to lose, the dollar amount by which
your sales should grow, what mile mark you need to hit to be
marathon ready, and how many classes you need to attend to
experience the optimal level of challenge. But while you can cre-
ate the most analytically sound goal in the world (with just the