Audacious and achievable goals

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

I recently read Pour Your Heart Into It, Howard Schultz' book about growing Starbucks into the success it is today.

At one point, he was talking about having audacious and achievable goals. That stuck in my head (not least because I jumped up and wrote it down on my whiteboard). I love the way that phrase balances two incredibly important pieces to getting the most you can out of life.

First, are you thinking big enough? And "big" in my mind doesn't mean are you aiming at building an empire. It means, are you really letting your reach extend to its fullest capacity?

Second, if you are thinking big, can you actually achieve it? And before you go ratcheting down your big thinking because you don't see an obvious way to make it happen, ask yourself if maybe the real issue is not that the dream is too big, but the vehicle that will get you there is too small.

What if you assumed that the dream was achievable? Your task then is not to figure out if it's possible, but how it's possible. What is the framework that needs to be in place? What are the variables you need to address? What steps do you need to take? What needs to happen first?

Make your dreams audacious, and then get to the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of bringing them down to earth.

--

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst (sm)

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Comments

[Rob]

Curt,

Great post. Setting audacious and achievable goals are something that I struggle with. Although I've tried countless methods to prompt my thinking (i.e., what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?) I seem to be stuck "inside the box." Any suggestions for expanding my vision so it includes audacious goals?

[Matthew Cornell]

I really love the idea of audacity. Keith Ferrazzi talks about the "genius of audacity" and encourages us to never be afraid to ask for something ('no' is the worst outcome). But we should lead with generosity, establish a level of intimacy, *then* ask...

I've tried some things that felt audacious, some of which panned out, others that didn't. (Example: I offered to teach David Allen's staff GTD concepts! :-)

Good stuff!

[Everything Counts]

Chalking out a definite path is an absolute necessary to success. Setting up goals help us define this path. All that we now need is to honor these goals and do our best to achieve them. If we honor them by achieving them in definite time, they automatically lead us to success and as we all know nothing succeeds like success.

[Everything Counts]

Diana Scharf Hunt says "Goals are dreams with deadlines". So, set your goals and start working on the ways to achieve them. Your goal can be as basic as to learn driving or losing body weight. But make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good.