Page 35 - Hard Goals

26 HARD Goals

things you love doing might stop being “fun” while you push
yourself to hang on, keep going, to continue pushing and striv-
ing for a higher level of greatness. If the woman in that story
truly cares about achieving her Ph.D. and becoming a professor
of literature—which is a signifi cant and meaningful accomplish-
ment that will stay with her for the rest of her life—she’s going
to need a much deeper commitment than just, “Reading Shake-
speare on the couch is fun.”
So what do you do if you’re not feeling as intensely plugged
in as you’d like toward your goals? How do you build that emo-
tional connection so that nothing short of death or disaster will
get in your way of seeing those goals though?
There are three ways to build a heartfelt connection to your
goals:

• Intrinsic: Develop a heartfelt connection to the goal
itself.
• Personal: Develop a heartfelt connection to the person
you’re doing a goal for.
• Extrinsic: Develop a heartfelt connection to the payoff.

Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

INTRINSIC CONNECTION

You’ll likely be more motivated to do something you really love
doing. This is an insight that probably falls in the category of
“well, duh” for most people. It’s also, in a nutshell, the defi ni-
tion of intrinsic motivation. Consider what you do in your free